[pcal-interest] A Variation on PCAL

[Jim D. <psc...@ea...>]

This is just to let you know about a "cousin" of PCAL's I work on that 
is based on PostScript code originally written by Patrick Woods way back 
in 1987. If this post violates some protocol, my apologies; please 
ignore it and carry on.

I have worked on a Windows-based variation of the original PsCal code by 
Patrick Woods and others for several years. Recently I learned about the 
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and have been able to use it to create 
a Linux version too.

An example PDF calendar can be downloaded from my Google Drive via:

http://tiny.cc/Fractals2025

The PDF user's manual can be downloaded via:

http://tiny.cc/PsCal_6_2_Guide
<http://tiny.cc/PsCal_6_2_Guide>
If it looks at all interesting to you, you can download the entire 
installation here:

     Linux: http://tiny.cc/PsCal_6_2_tar_gz
     Windows: http://tiny.cc/PsCal_6_2_zip

The Windows ZIP is quite large as it includes both GAWK and GhostScript 
installations which the Linux version does not.

Some of the major differences from PCAL are:

More-or-less neutral:
* Creates (but deletes by default) a PostScript calendar and uses ps2pdf 
to convert it into a multi-page PDF.
* Handles include files and conditional processing (differently 
implemented, however).

Leaning positive:
* Uses JPEG images instead of EPS files.
* Shell/batch file, AWK and PostScript based, so no compiling is needed 
and changes are (somewhat) easy to implement.
* Allows background images for each month and/or a separate image page 
prior to each month's page.
* Allows for individual events to have specific fonts, sizes, colors, 
and effects.
* Allows you to define PostScript functions of your own to "dress-up" 
calendar days.
* Has several built-in graphics functions you can use to make certain 
days stand out.

Leaning Negative:
* Completely different input file format.
* More limited way of specifying when events occur.
* Severely limited language support (English, French, German, Italian, 
Spanish, and Swedish) using the Windows 1252 character set.
* Landscape only in U.S. letter or A4 paper sizes.
* Only PostScript and PDF output (using GhostScript).