Accessing dvips features of xypic via pdflatex

Question

I read from the xypic reference manual that extra graphics features are accessible using dvips to compile, even though it still works in most cases with pdflatex. On the PSTricks website are listed several methods to compile a document with pstricks code using pdflatex.

Are there similar ways to compile a document with xypic code using pdflatex while still having access to dvips specials? Please list the various methods and compare them where applicable.

Answer 1

\usepackage{auto-pst-pdf}
...
\begin{postscript}
... your xy stuff
\end{postscript}
...

and then as usual pdflatex -shell-escape <file>

Answer 2

Most of what is possible with \xyoption{ps} (and dvi+dvips) is possible also via \xyoption{pdf} and pdflatex (actually, the manual of xypdf states that something is done better with xypdf than with xyps).