A Debugger for the Post Script Language

This report describes dbps, a PostScript debugger which runs under the Xll Window System. dbps provides the user with features which allow the user to do more than display the output of their programs at their workstation. dbps enables the user to observe the state of the interpreter as the program is executing, suspend the execution of the program, and interact with the interpreter before, during and after the execution of the program. The design and implementation of dbps are discussed in this paper. The motivation for dbps is provided by an overview of the PostScript language and how the interpreter handles errors along with a survey of current PostScript previewers