[tex-k] dvips: suggestion, easy to implement

[Horst Gwinner]

Dear all,

I've been using dvips since many years. I started on DOS,
"missed" Windows, and now I work on different Un*x platforms.

Using LaTeX 2e and package graphicx, I regularly produce
brochures of about 50 pages, with many PostScript images
included. Finally, I make a PDF file of it (dvips + gs).
For fast access (e-mail, www) I want to have a version
without the images but with space instead. 

For this purpose, I changed dvipsk/dospecial.c/dospecial():
I simply commented out the code between
   cmdout("@setspecial");
and
   cmdout("@endspecial");
compiled dvips and renamed it to dvips_no_files_included_via_special.

If you think this feature is of interest for many people,
I'd suggest to have an additional option in dvips. The main
problem surely is not the implementation, but finding a free
letter for the option.

Regards,
Horst