[snip]

>> If the first two characters are "%!", it's PostScript.
>
>> Hmm, this is fairly easy.  Just get a decent printer filter.  [...]
>> PS files always start with !#PS, so you can recognize them quite easy.
>
>Once more: this is a reasonable guess, but only a guess; it is
>perfectly valid for text files to start with %!, or PostScript programs
>to not start with a comment.  (Requiring PostScript code to start with
>a comment is as silly as cc refusing to compile something that doesn't
>start with /*.)

[snip]

I believe that I have run into duel mode laser printers which use '%!'
[and perhaps other hints] to figure out to itself that the following
would be Postscript as opposed to whatever other mode it also
supported.  The place I was at was not in the habit of printing text
with '%!' as the first two characters, so I am not sure I ever saw a
mis-guess.  Point taken, however....




Brad Spencer - brad@anduin.eldar.org   http://anduin.eldar.org