Clearly PostScript qua PostScript is just old NeWS now; maybe move on from GhostScript[3]
From the blog linked to by the article:
> It is good to remember that Postscript is a well-featured Turing-complete programming language ... All of this puts Ghostscript in an odd place where it wants to allow all these legacy use-cases, but it is also commonly being used as a conversion tool on untrusted files, which are often treated more as static graphic descriptions rather than as programs.
"legacy use-cases"?
So PostScript is just some nasty old "legacy" language (with the usual implication of "legacy" that it should be buried and forgotten)? Leave it as some oddball implemenation detail of our gorgeous laser printers but otherwise brush it under the carpet?
Look, except for having a bit of fun, *I* don't make use of PsTricks in my TeX/LaTeX documents[1]. But I also don't make use of a scanning electron microscope, a laser cooling rig or even a visual interferometry alignment device[2]. But those who do need that sort of power and complexity can produce some damn impressive and useful results.
GhostScript *is* a PostScript interpreter, first and foremost. And jolly good it is too.
If GhostScript is "in an odd place" (and one that risks opening unexpected vulnerabilities) then is it not down to any "legacy" PostScript usage but to the fact that it is being used to *also* run the lesser variant of PostScript implemented within PDF (is it still referred to as "Interchange PostScript" aka "IPS"? Or just referred to as "whatever is inside PDF"?). It is obvious why and how a full interpreter came to be running PDFs as well, it was almost inevitable (and the way that this then became, and remains, so widely used, when there are competing bits of software that only the PDF subset, speaks well for the results).
HOWEVER, perhaps a lot of the people who put Ghostscript into their pipeline purely for handling PDF ought to be lightly castigated for not promoting the use of GhostPDF, which is just a PDF interpreter, separated from the PostScript interpreter, and can perhaps be gently guided away from some of the complexities discussed in the Codean blog (and the concerns that the Ghostscript authors talk about in their blog post) and vulnerabilities that arise from those.
[1] And I'm well aware that using TeX/LaTeX is a minority sport, even around El Reg readers (although, I argue that if you are ever going to programmatically generate PDFs you can do a lot worse than starting with LaTeX, especially if you like to include your inputs in your choice of plain-text version control system), PsTricks more so.
[2] actually, only because my telescopes are refractors, so I leave the alignment of compound reflectors to the other members of the local amateur astronomy club.
[3] if all you need is PDF, consider GhostPDF