jdaw1
2015-03-13 22:47:43 UTC
On 4th March 2015 a letter was sent to Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe Systems. A standard email reply came today, saying “With this response, we believe your issue is resolved and have therefore closed your case 0215127971.” That case number contained a scan of my paper letter, and nothing else.
Useless. :-(
FYI, the text of my letter follows.
Useless. :-(
FYI, the text of my letter follows.
Dear Mr Narayen,
Adobe made a fantastic product. Indeed, the product — PostScript — made Adobe. A small select band of us still use PostScript as a programming language, not just as a machine-generated intermediary between computer and raster image. Indeed, I maintain one large open-source PostScript program, available via www.jdawiseman.com/placemat.html. For precise control of what is on the page PostScript is still my favourite programming language.
But PostScript is dead. The most recent version, language level 3, was released in 1997. Development of the language seems to have stopped (I have a list of requests for language level 4, but presumably they will never happen). Indeed, as far as I can tell, development of and revenue from Adobe Distiller is negligible (one bug fix and two small UI improvements are wanted, but presumably they will never happen). Part of the reason that Distiller doesn’t sell is that people use the free GhostScript, even though GhostScript isn’t as good: it processes each execform separately; it encodes settransfer in a manner heeded by Acrobat Reader but ignored by Mac Preview; and it ignores some types of call to pdfmark.
Adobe makes other fabulous products, now sold as a service, and wants customers to believe that Adobe will continue to support them for a very long time. Please help this belief: please give away Distiller, free, for all platforms. Indeed, go further, help people really believe that an Adobe standard is forever: open the source. Allow Apple to maintain the code for the Mac; allow Microsoft to maintain the code for Windows.
It would cost Adobe nothing; it would gain Adobe a little belief in its software as a service. And it would slightly convenience some users of my PostScript program.
Thank you.
Adobe made a fantastic product. Indeed, the product — PostScript — made Adobe. A small select band of us still use PostScript as a programming language, not just as a machine-generated intermediary between computer and raster image. Indeed, I maintain one large open-source PostScript program, available via www.jdawiseman.com/placemat.html. For precise control of what is on the page PostScript is still my favourite programming language.
But PostScript is dead. The most recent version, language level 3, was released in 1997. Development of the language seems to have stopped (I have a list of requests for language level 4, but presumably they will never happen). Indeed, as far as I can tell, development of and revenue from Adobe Distiller is negligible (one bug fix and two small UI improvements are wanted, but presumably they will never happen). Part of the reason that Distiller doesn’t sell is that people use the free GhostScript, even though GhostScript isn’t as good: it processes each execform separately; it encodes settransfer in a manner heeded by Acrobat Reader but ignored by Mac Preview; and it ignores some types of call to pdfmark.
Adobe makes other fabulous products, now sold as a service, and wants customers to believe that Adobe will continue to support them for a very long time. Please help this belief: please give away Distiller, free, for all platforms. Indeed, go further, help people really believe that an Adobe standard is forever: open the source. Allow Apple to maintain the code for the Mac; allow Microsoft to maintain the code for Windows.
It would cost Adobe nothing; it would gain Adobe a little belief in its software as a service. And it would slightly convenience some users of my PostScript program.
Thank you.