[gs-devel] ghostscript vs. espgs

[Till Kamppeter]

Bernhard Rosenkraenzer wrote:
> Hi,
> we've been shipping espgs for ages, but nowadays it looks like all the action 
> has moved back to "normal" gs, and we're planning to switch back.
> 
> Are there any pitfalls to watch out for in the switch? (e.g. gs doesn't seem 
> to have pstoraster - are there any known problems with using espgs' 
> pstoraster on top of normal gs, or is there a better alternative for use with 
> gs?)

Note that GPL GS is missing most third-party built-in drivers and the 
"cups" and OpenPrinting Vector interfaces. It also misses the 
modularization code for the X drivers (to make the X drivers separately 
installable, so that one GhostScript package can serve both desktop and 
X-less server installations, see GhostScript packaging in Mandriva and 
Ubuntu Feisty). There are also some bug fixes and build system 
enhancements by Mike Sweet in ESP GhostScript.

Mike Sweet and me will soon start the merger of ESP and GPL GhostScript, 
which means that we add the features which I mentioned to GPL 
GhostScript. The ESP GhostScript development is closed now. The 
distributions are encouraged to switch to GPL GhostScript as soon as the 
merger has happened. The merger is urgent, see especially the bug list 
at Ubuntu:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gs-esp/


If you need to switch urgently to meet a release date, take the source 
of GPL GhostScript and add the following directories of ESP GhostScript 
to it

addons
pstoraster

and include the .mak files in these directories by appropriate 
directives in the main Makefile. Add also all .upp files from the lib 
subdirectory of ESP GS to the lib subdirectory of GPL GS. Then you will 
be in sync with OpenPrinting concerning the listed built-in and Uniprint 
GhostScript drivers. You will also have the CUPS Raster and OpenPrinting 
Vector interfaces which will be required by the upcoming LSB 3.2.

For the modularization of the X11 driver, apply this patch:

http://www.linuxprinting.org/download/printing/ghostscript-8.x/patches/ghostscript-8.15-x11-svga-as-shared-library.patch

Then you have everything important and your GhostScript will be 90% of 
the merger. Especially you are not missing any driver and users will 
appreciate the much higher reliability in PDF handling (both as input 
and as output files).

Please make sure that the added (and all already included) drivers and 
output devices get actually built (compare "gs -h" of ESP and GPL GS).

If you do this packaging as I described here and need to do modify 
anything, please tell me. I would be much more grateful even for the 
source RPM which you will have then, I will use it then also to switch 
over the GhostScript of the LSB DDK:

http://www.linuxprinting.org/download/printdriver/SRPMS/ghostscript-8.15.4-2lsb3.1.src.rpm

    Till