Running Adobe's 1991 PostScript Interpreter from an HP LaserJet Cartridge in the Browser
By
ingve
1mo ago· 2 min readenNews
70/100
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Summary
A technical article about retro-ps, a project that emulates a 1991 HP PostScript Cartridge Plus (C2089A) in the browser. The cartridge contained Adobe's own PostScript Level 2 reference interpreter (version 2010.118) on a 2 MB ROM running on a Motorola 68K processor. The project emulates the M68K CPU and fakes the LaserJet mainboard to run this decades-old but still-current PostScript implementation productively in modern browsers.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThirty-five years on, that ROM is still a current PostScript implementation: it renders the language correctly, and the language hasn't changed.
Old code is not always retro code: Why not use it productively today?
retro-ps takes that ROM, emulates the M68K it ran on, fakes the LaserJet mainboard around it, and runs it in the browser.
The HP C2089A “PostScript Cartridge Plus”, a 1991 add-on for the LaserJet II/III, adds PostScript Level 2 support through Adobe’s own reference interpreter (version 2010.118) on a 2 MB ROM.
