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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 68.6.110.91 (talk) at 16:11, 15 May 2005 (DPS was created as a cooperative effort between Adobe and NeXT). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Disputed

I can't find an authoritative source, but every source I can find (and my own memory) says that Display Postscript was developed at Adobe, and that NextStep was just an early licensee. Even if I'm wrong about this, the vague language about how DPS became an Adobe product indicates nonverified facts, and needs to be resolved into something definite. ---Isaac R 21:26, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

DPS was created as a cooperative effort between Adobe and NeXT

I can speak with some authority on this since I did the Adobe side (see /http://theory.kitp.ucsb.edu/~paxton/ for more info on my history). One of my first projects at Adobe, when Steve Jobs was still at Apple and the first LaserWriter was yet to be born, was to make a display driver for PostScript so it could make images directly on the Sun workstation screen. I used that system to create a font outline editing system written in PostScript that we used to make the first Type 1 fonts. So there's a real sense in which "display PostScript" was created at Adobe long before NeXT existed.

But that early DPS wasn't at all up to the job of supporting something like NeXT Step. So there was lots of work still to be done when Jobs contacted Adobe and suggested a project with NeXT. Adobe provided sources for PostScript (except for the sensitive font module), technical support (me), and whatever changes needed from the Adobe side (me, again). The NeXT side of the project was to create something that would actually work for a product-quality, interactive, display based user interface. They did a brilliant job, and it was a pleasure working with them.

Many of the things learned in doing Display PostScript were introduced into the Level 2 version of PostScript. DPS was also an important step toward PDFs.

As to why Apple's Quartz uses PDF rather than DPS, I can only speculate (I was elsewhere when that was going on). My guess is that PDF is simply a better choice than DPS for purely technical reasons. It's not surprising that all the experience with PostScript eventually led Adobe to create something even better. And it's also not surprising that Apple recognized the fact.

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