Installation - Part 1

[showmyiq]

I want to say that this chapter is orientated to Windows Users only. I think that Linux installation is straightforward and easy to setup (but if you are using Unix-based OS and you are experiencing some difficulties in installing the PostScript Interpreter or editor, just let me know and I will provide a tutorial too).

You don’t need some large enough space or some expensive PC – just the opposite. In fact the PostScript is not using compilation software, just interpreting software. That was made to implement flexibility and universality. Imagine you have a ready to go PostScript source code and you need to print the drawing on some random laser printer. There will be no hesitating for installing some sophisticated software on the Printer Server or some modifications or plugins or libraries and so on. Just write down the source and the printer starts its work. Easy as that!

First we need to install GhostScript. You need to download the latest version of GPL GhostScript. If in some case the download link provided here is not working, you can search in google for alternatives sources.

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/GPL/index.htm

At the time of writing this tutorial the latest version is GPL Ghostscript 9.02

When you are ready with this step, you need to install the GSview. It is a GhostScript viewer, which will help us to see our drawings. Again you should install the latest version supplied. w32 is an abreviature of windows 32 bits system and w64 is an abreviature of windows 64 bits system. Depends on your operation system you should install the 32 or 64 bits version.

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/get50.htm

The last thing we need to install is the editor in which we can write long source codes and saves them for later use. In the next chapter we are going to set it up (really fast step, nothing to be scared of). It is like a notepad, but with some extra options.

http://www.scintilla.org/SciTEDownload.html

In the time or writing this tutorial the direct link of downloading the SciTE editor is this one:

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/scintilla/wscite325.zip?download

If you experience some difficulties in installing those 3 programs, ask here and I will help you in a short manner.

Now let's continue to the next chapter 2 - Setting up.