Many of my course documents (homeworks, practice exams,
etc.) and some of my research papers
are accessible from my course web pages as postscript
(tm) files.
These documents are the output of a document preparation
system I use that allows for nice-looking mathematical equations
(the document preparation system, incidentally, is called latex).
Postscript files are actually text files
(they contain only alpha-numeric characters),
and they essentially contain commands that tell a computer
what to produce on the monitor or what to print.
In order to translate the commands in these files to
something the computer can understand, you need to obtain a
postscript interpreter (which translates the
commands so the computer can understand them)
and a postscript previewer (which can display and
print the translated file).
This is why you will need ghostscript (a postscript interpreter) and
ghostview (a postscript previewer).
The easiest way to view postscript documents is to obtain a
``ghostscript'' installation (the postscript interpreter),
and ``GSview'' or ``Ghostview'' (postscript previewers).
To do so, go to the Ghostscript
home page.
On that page, you should first download an install ghostscript
for your platform.
From the Ghostscript home page, there will be a link to
AFPL Ghostscript.
Go there!
If you are a PC user, you should run the self-extracting EXE
file.
Instructions for installation are provided on that page.
Go back to the Ghostscript home page, and then download and
install GSview.
A link for GSview is provided on the page.
Once again, if you are a PC user,
you can install from the self-extracting file.
Mark Glickman (mg -at- bu -dot- edu)