Re: How Des Your Company Do Reports?

In article <31D491BA.78B6_at_us.oracle.com> Per Brondum <pbrondum_at_us.oracle.com> writes:
] Jenny Farnham wrote:
] >
] > So, for Reports 2.5 output, how do you all
] > there display reports run overnight?
]
] If you get your hands on the newly released Reports 2.5.6 in
] Developer/2000 1.3.1, you'll find exactly what you're looking for.
]
] A complete PDF driver (PDF is Adobe's standard for high quality crisp
] documents) generates output that can be re-viewed without you having to
] change anything in the report. Reports generated with this driver can be
] viewed from any webbrowser (PowerBrowser, Netscape) using the Amber
] Plugin from Adobe. (Amber can even embed inself into the browsers!).

    You can also run your report to file, and use a PostScript viewer, like GhostScript or GhostView, to view the report.

    I've included information on those programs from the comp.lang.postscript FAQ. It's a little old, though: if you can't find these programs, try asking on that newsgroup for the new locations.

• Bill K.

Bill Kaufman,          | "Patience is a virtue.  Seersucker is a fabric."
wkaufman_at_us.oracle.com |                                   -- Bazooka Joe



    Ghostscript 
      is perhaps the most popular previewer. It is a PostScript 
      interpreter written by L. Peter Deutsch, and is distributed under 
      the terms of the GNU Library General Public License. Unlike 
      commercial interpreters, ghostscript isn't tied to a particular 
      piece of hardware. Ghostscript will compile on most common 
      platforms, and has drivers for many common peripherals, including 
      X11R [ 345 ] , MS-DOS-VGA, Deskjet 500, Epson dot matrix 
      printers, and HP laserjets. 

      Ghostscript deals well with ``normal'' documents, such as output 
      from Tomas Rokicki's dvips. If you're into testing the outer 
      limits of PostScript, however, your mileage with Ghostscript may 
      vary. The output character quality is (obviously) dependent upon 
      the fonts which ghostscript uses. Most of ghostscript's fonts are 
      outlines generated from the bitmap fonts that were donated by 
      Adobe to the X consortium. These are certainly good enough for 
      screen previewing, and rough drafts, but show their limitations 
      when used on laser printers. Fortunately, Ghostscript can use 
      type 1 fonts, so if you happen to have some around, you'll find 
      that the output quality is very close to that of a PostScript 
      interpreter. Ghostscript comes with a few type 1 fonts that were 
      donated to the X consortium from Adobe, IBM, and Bitstream. Note 
      that if you're using TeX or LaTeX with the cmr fonts, this last 
      statement implies that ghostscript will probably suit your needs, 
      since your dvi-to-ps converter will include the cmr fonts in its 
      output PostScript file. It also handles the special hints in 
      Adobe Type 1 fonts (see Section 4 of the comp.lang.postscript 
      FAQ, ``Fonts''). 

      If you're using IBM OS/2 2.0, you can make a Ghostscript icon and 
      drag PostScript files onto it and they'll be printed 
      automatically. 

      Ghostscript 2.2 has been ported to the Atari ST platform by 
      Timothy Gallivan. It's available by ftp to 
      atari.archive.umich.edu. 

      Ghostscript has been ported to Amiga. It's available at any 
      Aminet FTP site, for example wuarchive.wustl.edu 
      pub/aminet/text/print/. The files are 'ghostscript2.6.1.lha' and 
      'gs2.3-fonts.lha'. 

      For more information about Ghostscript, read the 
      gnu.ghostscript.bug newsgroup, or contact the author, Peter 
      Deutsch, at ghost_at_aladdin.com. 


              What: Interpreter, Previewer, Programmer-Utility, 
              User-Utility, Non-PostScript-Printer-Driver, Level-2, 
              Converts-PostScript-to-GIF, Converts-PostScript-to-PBM. 
              Status: free. Platforms: MS-DOS, UNIX, VMS, Xwindows, 
              Macintosh, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga, Atari-ST. Get-From: 
              Japan: ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp, 
              utsun.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp:ftpsync/prep Australia: 
              archie.oz.au:gnu Europe: src.doc.ic.ac.uk:gnu, 
              ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de, 
              ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de:pub/gnu, 
              nic.funet.fi:pub/gnu, ugle.unit.no, isy.liu.se, 
              ftp.stacken.kth.se, sunic.sunet.se, ftp.win.tue.nl, 
              ftp.diku.dk, ftp.eunet.ch, archive.eu.net United States: 
              ftp.cs.wisc.edu:pub/X, prep.ai.mit.edu:pub/gnu, 
              wuarchive.wustl.edu, ftp.cs.widener.edu, 
              uxc.cso.uiuc.edu, col.hp.com, gatekeeper.dec.com:pub/GNU, 
              ftp.uu.net:systems/gnu. Macintosh: 
              ftp.cs.wisc.edu:pub/ghost/ghostscript-2.5.2runtime*mac.hqx 
              Archimedes: contact David Elworthy 
              (David.Elworthy_at_cl.cam.ac.uk). Amiga: available at any 
              Aminet FTP site, for example wuarchive.wustl.edu 
              pub/aminet/text/print/. The files are 
              'ghostscript2.6.1.lha' and 'gs2.3-fonts.lha'. 

      See Ghostview and GSPreview. 


    Ghostview 
      is an X11 user interface for ghostscript. It was written by Tim 
      Theisen, and is distributed under the terms of the GNU General 
      Public License. Ghostview runs on UNIX and VMS platforms. To 
      compile ghostview, you should have the X11R5 distribution from 
      MIT. Many vendors do not provide the Athena widgets. 

      Ghostview provides a menu driven interface with ample keyboard 
      accelerators. It also provides popup zoom windows and the ability 
      to save or print selected pages. 

      For more information about ghostview, contact the author, Tim 
      Theisen, at ghostview_at_cs.wisc.edu. 


              What: Bounding-Box, Document-Previewer, Level-2, 
              Page-Reordering. Status: free. Platforms: X11 on Unix or 
              VMS systems. Get-From: Source: 
              ftp.cs.wisc.edu:/pub/X/ghostview-1.4.1.tar.Z or 
              prep.ai.mit.edu:/pub/gnu/ghostview-1.4.1.tar.Z or other 
              GNU distribution points (see ghostscript's listing) 
              Binaries: ftp.cs.wisc.edu:/pub/X/ghostview-exe directory.