Postscript Code mailto:joe.loughry@gmail.com
Consider the domain-specific language used to describe heraldic devices.
*Argent a cross potent purpure, a quarter counterchanged*
There is not a syllable wasted in that description. But the information left implicit in the language is important. The precise shape of the shield, for example, is not important. Above or below the midpoint, left or right of centre is significant, but precisely where the midpoint of a shield is is not a question heraldic language answers.
See my unpublished ms Notes on the Centroid of a Shield for more.
There are two PostScript source files here, shield.eps and st_cross_shield.eps.
Both are valid Encapsulated PostScript (EPS); the former draws the outline of a
heraldic shield only and the latter draws the arms of St Cross College, Oxford as above.