Coherent Graphics Ltd

A new introductory book on Python has been published, patterned after the successful books OCaml from the Very Beginning and Haskell from the Very Beginning. It can be obtained on the book’s own website, in electronic form, or from Amazon in Paperback and Kindle form.

https://www.pythonfromtheverybeginning.com

https://www.amazon.com/Python-Very-Beginning-exercises-answers/dp/0957671156/

In Python from the Very Beginning John Whitington takes a no-prerequisites approach to teaching the basics of a modern general-purpose programming language. Each small, self-contained chapter introduces a new topic, building until the reader can write quite substantial programs. There are plenty of questions and, crucially, worked answers and hints.

Python from the Very Beginning will appeal both to new programmers, and to experienced programmers eager to explore functional languages such as Haskell. It is suitable both for formal use within an undergraduate or graduate curriculum, and for the interested amateur.

The book Haskell from the Very Beginning, has now been published. A printed copy may be obtained from Amazon for $29.99:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/095767113X/

In Haskell from the Very Beginning John Whitington takes a no-prerequisites approach to teaching the basics of a modern general-purpose programming language. Each small, self-contained chapter introduces a new topic, building until the reader can write quite substantial programs. There are plenty of questions and, crucially, worked answers and hints.

Haskell from the Very Beginning will appeal both to new programmers, and to experienced programmers eager to explore functional languages such as Haskell. It is suitable both for formal use within an undergraduate or graduate curriculum, and for the interested amateur.

Alternatively, a PDF copy may be obtained for $19.99 from the book’s website:

https://www.haskellfromtheverybeginning.com

Thanks to all those who have helped in recent weeks with useful comments on an earlier draft.

Coherent PDF Tools Version 2.3 have been released. This version adds some new features, and some improvements to existing ones:

• Improvements to malformed file reading
• Directly set and remove Trim, Art, and Bleed boxes
• Dump attachments to file
• Extended bookmark format, preserving all bookmark information
• New -pad-with, -pad-mutiple-before options
• Set or create XMP metadata
• Remove graphics clipping
• Set bookmarks open to a given level
• Create PDF files from scatch
• Remove single images by name
• Add trim marks

Full details on our home page.

CPDF 2.2 is now out, with many new features, and increased speed and reliability, especially for large or encrypted files.

The formerly separate product smpdf for lossless compression of PDF files is now included in cpdf at no extra cost.

• Perform arithmetic on dimensions when specifying size or position
• Add simple rectangles to PDF to blank things out
• Stamping operations now preserve annotations
• Decryption fully on-demand for speed.
• -keep-l keeps existing linearization status
• -remove-dict-entry to remove the contents of a dictionary entry
• -topline in addition to -midline
• -producer and -creator may be used to alter producer and creator in
• conjunction with any other operation
• -topline and -midline now apply to stamps
• -list-spot-colours to enumerate all spot colours
• -bates-at-range and -bates-pad-to improve Bates number options
• -print-page-labels to list the page labels to standard output
• -squeeze replaces smpdf, integrated in cpdf itself.
• Preserve more sharing of data when doing merges and page alterations

Licenses from $339. Customers without current support contracts may upgrade for $189.

Full details on our home page.

Coherent Press launches a new Popular Science book about Computer Science.

How do we decide where to put ink on a page to draw letters and pictures? How can computers represent all the world’s languages and writing systems? What exactly is a computer program, what and how does it calculate, and how can we build one? Can we compress information to make it easier to store and quicker to transmit? How do newspapers print photographs with grey tones using just black ink and white paper? How are paragraphs laid out automatically on a page and split across multiple pages?

In A Machine Made this Book, using examples from the publishing
industry, John Whitington introduces the fascinating discipline of Computer
Science to the uninitiated.

Sample chapters

Front matter

1. Putting Marks on Paper
2. Letter Forms
3. Storing Words
4. Looking and Finding
5. Typing it In
6. Saving Space
7. Doing Sums
8. Grey Areas
9. Our Typeface
10. Words to Paragraphs

Back matter

Amazon $19.99 | Website | Google Books | PDF Ebook $9.99

CPDF 2.1 is now out, with some new features and work under the hood to improve encryption and speed on large files

• Encryption now much, much faster
• Faster parsing of delayed object streams on large files
• -decompress now leaves object streams decompressed
• Select pages by landscape-ness or portrait-ness in a page range
• New -open-at-page and -open-at-page-fit option to set the open action
• New -recrypt option to re-encrypt output
• Reads XMP metadata and outputs it on -info
• New -center position for text
• -stamp can now use positions, just like stamping text
• Better handling of permissions for files with user passwords
• Linearization excised
• Can encrypt or recrypt output of -split and -split-bookmarks now
• -args replaces -control with better behaviour
• Can scale a stamp to fit before stamping with -scale-stamp-to-fit

Licenses from $319. Customers without current support contracts may upgrade for $189.

Full details on our home page.