Way back when . . .

[richmond62]

LiveCode was called Runtime Revolution there was the possibility to import EPS files . . .

[kdjanz]

Is it possible to convert the EPS to SVG and use the new capabilities?
Wondering…

[richmond62]

Converting EPS to SVG is possible, but it generally involves using an online converter.

[FourthWorld]

The Dictionary entry for the EPS object includes:

"This object type is supported only on Unix systems with Display PostScript installed."

Have seen Display Postscript in common use since NeXT.

The online conversion tools are just web frontends for free utilities. I believe even ImageMagick does that sort of conversion.

With the shell function you can automate that with LC. Just a few months ago I did that for several CDs of old EPS files.

[PaulDaMacMan]

reviving thread...
In the back of my mind I knew that the Engines, at least at one time, at least on Unix with Display Postscript screen rendering (so NeXT,Sun,Irix,etc.) had support for EPS Objects, but digging through the IDE and seeing references to that, newly reminded me of this fact so I decided to try it on NeXT modern descendant, macOS, just for the hell of it...
Create a new stack and then put this into the message box:

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new EPS "Test"

It does indeed create an EPS object, which the Property Inspector claims is "No Object Selected" even though I can clearly see it is an object, it is selected, and I can edit its script and use it like a graphic object (responds to mouseUp/Down).
The only related syntax in the dictionary I could find indicates it was used like so:

set postscript of EPS "TestEPS" to field "PostScriptCode"

I tried this out, putting some very basic PostScript commands in field "PostScriptCode". Which sadly did nothing.
The Cairo 2D drawing library that is used by the engines does still support Postscript, I believe Skia, used in Extensions for widget canvas drawing, can support PS as well. Interestingly, when I move the position of this EPS Object on my stack, while moving it, it renders an 'X' inside the object rect, as seen in page layout programs such as InDesign, QuarkXpress, etc. It's almost like the support for EPS is still in there but it's been abandoned, probably because these days there is also SVG and PDF for resolution independent graphics. Maybe it could've been repurposed to support those too, rename it Encapsulated 'Picture' Stuff (lol) object or just make it an synonym for a 'Picture' object type, as was briefly discussed when they were first adding color SVG Support to the engines ( which wound up just using existing 'image' object vis drawingSvgCompile() ).

[richmond62]

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Oh, Yes, how odd.
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SShot 2022-02-15 at 16.52.52.png (8 KiB) Viewed 2466 times

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Oddlier and oddlier . . .
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It lives, it breathes, it's a ? ? ?.

[PaulDaMacMan]

I'm certainly curious... even though PostScript isn't quite as useful as it was back in the 1990s (because of the afore mentioned PDF and SVG). I mean .eps/.ps isn't even used in the printing industry much these days, and MacOS X replaced 'Display Postscript' with Apple's Quartz rendering engine almost two decades ago... but still I find myself wondering if there is any residual functionality lurking under the surface, and since EPS still exists as an object type, could/should it be repurposed?

I've actually become very interested in if there is a way to create arbitrary control/object types purely with script (even if that means modifying the IDE scripts) so that the engine is aware of this new control/object type? Maybe in a way that the DataGrid is a custom control/object type (that uses a sub stack sort of like a template 'class')? Formatting so that objects can be referenced like

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 set the dooDad of CustomControlScriptObjType "The Objects Name" of stack "MyStack" to 7 

?