cannot edit ghostprint ppd in Windows 10 - ghostscript

Question

I had some difficulty posing my problem in a way that the Title filter found pleasing. The real problem is that modifying only the GhostPDF.PDD file in the GS9.26 installation in Windows 10 doesn't seem to affect the output after a re-installation using Windows 10 Device Installer.
I print to a networked Sun SPARCprinter 1 which is controlled by Ghostprint (script?) compiled to run on SunOS 4.1.4. This has worked successfully for some years printing output from Windows XP using Adobe's PS driver and a SPARCstation PPD cobbled together from samples found on the net.
I've installed Artifex's 9.26 on Windows 10 and output to an LPR printer (The Sun). The output works, is recognized as PS output by the Sun, but produces a number of FATAL errors.
I need to edit the Windows Ghostscript installation to output PS files which are more suitable for the Sun.
So to my simple question: Do I need to modify anything in the Ghostscript Windows 10 installation other than the Ghostpdf.PPD file?
additional info:
SPARCstation 10 information:
SunOS 4.1.4
arcad# gcc -dumpversion
2.95.2 Note: I had to bootstrap this version up from the early GCC which could be compiled with the SunOS 4.1.4 C compiler. I had the impression I couldn't bring it up any further but could be mistaken.
arcad# gs --help
Aladdin Ghostscript 6.01 (2000-03-17)
Copyright (C) 2000 Aladdin Enterprises ...
Usage: gs [switches] [file1.ps file2.ps ...]
Most frequently used switches: (you can use # in place of =)
-dNOPAUSE no pause after page | -q `quiet', fewer messages
-g<width>x<height> page size in pixels | -r<res> pixels/inch resolution
-sDEVICE=<devname> select device | -dBATCH exit after last file
-sOutputFile=<file> select output file: - for stdout, |command for pipe,
embed %d or %ld for page #
Input formats: PostScript PostScriptLevel1 PostScriptLevel2 PDF
.....
For more information, see /usr/local/share/ghostscript/6.01/doc/Use.htm.
Note: I think this is the most recent GS version I can compile with this gcc version
printcap section:
gp|GhostPrinter:\
:lp=/dev/lpvi0:sd=/var/spool/gsprintspool:lf=/var/spool/gsprintspool/log:\
:mx#0:sh:if=/usr/local/libexec/lpfilter-gps:
Typical spool file - "....." indicates stuff not included here"
arcad# more dfA004DESKTOP-M8C5I86
%!PS-Adobe-3.0
%%Title: Document
%%Creator: PScript5.dll Version 5.2.2
%%CreationDate: 12/14/2018 19:56:8
%%For: jferg
%%BoundingBox: (atend)
%%Pages: (atend)
%%Orientation: Portrait
%%PageOrder: Special
%%DocumentNeededResources: (atend)
%%DocumentSuppliedResources: (atend)
%%DocumentData: Clean7Bit
%%TargetDevice: (Ghostscript) (3010) 815
%%LanguageLevel: 3
%%EndComments
%%BeginDefaults
%%PageBoundingBox: 0 0 612 792
%%ViewingOrientation: 1 0 0 1
%%EndDefaults
.....
%%EndResource
userdict /Pscript_WinNT_Incr 230 dict dup begin put
%%BeginResource: file Pscript_FatalError 5.0 0
userdict begin/FatalErrorIf{{initgraphics findfont 1 index 0 eq{exch pop}{dup
length dict begin{1 index/FID ne{def}{pop pop}ifelse}forall/Encoding
{ISOLatin1Encoding}stopped{StandardEncoding}if def currentdict end
/ErrFont-Latin1 exch definefont}ifelse exch scalefont setfont counttomark 3 div
cvi{moveto show}repeat showpage quit}{cleartomark}ifelse}bind def end
%%EndResource
userdict begin/PrtVMMsg{vmstatus exch sub exch pop gt{[
quires more memory than is available in this printer.)100 500
more of the following, and then print again:)100 485
put format, choose Optimize For Portability.)115 470
ce Settings page, make sure the Available PostScript Memory is accur--More--(2%)
ce the number of fonts in the document.)115 440
ocument in parts.)115 425 12/Times-Roman showpage
Error: Low Printer VM ]%%)= true FatalErrorIf}if}bind def end
2016 ge{/VM?{pop}bind def}{/VM? userdict/PrtVMMsg get def}ifelse
.....
SPARCprinter PDD file which works with Adobe PS in Windows XP:
john#hp2:~/sun-stuff/cups-sparc$ more SPARCprinter2.ppd
*PPD-Adobe: "4.1"
*% PostScript(R) Printer Description File for SPARCprinter
*% Date: 94/01/14
*% Copyright 1994 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*% Permission is granted for redistribution of this file as
*% long as this copyright notice is intact and the contents
*% of the file is not altered in any way from its original form.
*% End of Copyright statement
*% Changed margins on SPARCprinter JAF 3-3-2017
*FormatVersion: "4.1"
*FileVersion: "1.10"
*LanguageEncoding: ISOLatin1
*LanguageVersion: English
*PCFileName: "SPRN.PPD"
*Product: "(SPARCprinter)"
*PSVersion: "(3.000) 0"
*ModelName: "SPARCprinter"
*ShortNickName: "SPARCprinter"
*NickName: "SPARCprinter"
*% ==== Device Capabilities ===============
*LanguageLevel: "3"
*Extensions: CMYK Composite
*FreeVM: "4194304"
*ColorDevice: False
*DefaultColorSpace: Gray
*VariablePaperSize: False
*TTRasterizer: None
*FileSystem: False
..... more of the usual stuff

Answer 1

I don't really understand why you have installed Ghostscript on Windows. Windows is perfectly capable of producing PostScript files all of its own. In addition, the PPD file doesn't actually do very much, it is simply a text file with descriptions of the capabilities of the printer.
So the real problem is, or seems to be, that your SUN setup doesn't like the PostScript being produced by the new version of Windows.
You don't say how you are printing the PostScript file. not how your printer is 'controlled by Ghostscript' (I'm not aware of any product called Ghostprint, there is a GSPrint as part of GSView, but that's really for Windows).
Assuming you are using Ghostscript on your Sparc workstation to drive the pritner, then the most likely problem I would say is that you are using an old version of Ghostscript on the workstation, and it doesn't like the PostScript being generated by the newer version of Windows.
If you had included the transcript from the workstation Ghostscript installation it might be possible to say more but without that I'm rather guessing.
Another possibility is that you are using the ps2write device in Ghostscript to produce PostScript files on Windows. I can't think why you would be doing that, but it sort of fits your description. In that case editing the PPD file will have no effect, because Ghostscript doesn't use it.
Now the ps2write device emits level 2 PostScript, the clue is in the name, and its possible again that your Sparc setup is so elderly that it doesn't understand level 2, or doesn't fully implement it. In which case you will probably get errors. Again, if you were to provide the text of the error messages this would help!
In the latter case, you are frankly out of luck. We dropped support for level 1 PostScript output some time ago, what with level 2 being 28 years old now and level 3 coming up on 20. If you need language level 1 output you will have to go back to a very old version of Ghostscript. Something like 9.07 (from 5 and a half years ago) was the last version that included the pswrite device.
With effort you could take the pswrite device and upgrade it so that it works with the current version of Ghostscript
[EDIT]
My word, that's a really old version of Ghostscript!
You could try building a new version to replace it, but I also don't know if current code will compile on gcc 2.95. It 'should' because we only expect C89, but the third party libraries (which are essential) may very well not compile.
The PostScript file you quoted has been produced by Windows, not by Ghostscript (%%Creator: PScript5.dll Version 5.2.2). So it seems likely to me that your problem is the PostScript being produced by the newer version of Windows doesn't work with your 18 year old version of Ghostscript. That's not actually entirely surprising.
If you look at the DSC comments it says:
%%LanguageLevel: 3
And your Ghostscript information says that it supports language levels 1 and 2. At the time the level 3 spec had only just been published (1999), and clearly the maintainers back then hadn't had time to fully implement it.
Note that the ghostpdf.ppd file is intended for use with Ghostscript as a 'print to PDF' printer along with the RedMon port monitor.
Now its not obvious to me which PPD file you are using, but..... Both the ghostpdf.ppd file and the sparcprinter ppd file have :
*LanguageLevel: "3"
That tells the PostScript driver that it can use language level 3, which your Sparc Ghostscript doesn't support. You could try changing that to:
*LanguageLevel: "2"
and see if that makes a difference (you will have to uninstall the printers from Windows and re-install them with the modified PPD file).
If it doesn't work, the only other thing I can think of is to use the Ghostscript you installed on the Windows system, and preprocess the PostScript file produced by Windows before you send it on. You can use the ps2write device in Ghostscript 9.26 to take in the level 3 file, and produce a level 2 file. It might be a bit bigger, but it ought to work.
To do that on Windows you would use something like:
gswin64c -sDEVICE=ps2write -sOutputFile=out.ps <input.ps>
The file 'out.ps' should then be a level 2 PostScript file. I can't guarantee that the output will then work the old version of Ghostscript on your Sparc, but you stand a chance!