Re: Editors

From: Beth (BethStone21_at_hotmail.NOSPICEDHAM.com)
Date: 03/03/04 

Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 13:31:19 -0000

Herbert Kleebauer wrote:
> eth wrote:

[ "eth"? ;) ]

> > to wait for you to get the message on the
> > constant "PDF files are crap!!!" comments that people make all the
> > time
>
> > that many, many people suffer: "Oh, crap! It's a PDF
> > file! Ah, forget it!! I'd rather stay ignorant!! I'd rather stick
pins
> > in my eyes repeatedly than fight with that Acrobat reader ever
> > again!!"...
>
> > Straight down the line, the _MAIN COMPLAINT_ here is the bloody
PDF
> > files!!
>
> > But, enough is enough...the _INJUSTICE_ you do to HLA by using
those
> > bloody PDF files is offensive...
>
> > I'm quite serious that half the problems of acceptance you're
getting with
> > HLA is in no small part thanks to those PDF files...except for
Adobe,
> > you might be about the only person in existence who actually
_likes_
> > them
>
> > There are some who are "indifferent" to PDF files, of course...but
> > there's an awful lot who _DESPISE_ them with a passion...HTML is
not
> > just "neutral" with regards to being viewable on practically all
> > platforms (including mobile phones, for Pete's sake ;)...it's also
> > "neutral" with regard to people's opinions on the format...it's
"text
> > files with tags" so who's going to worry about that?
>
> Seems you had a very bad day.

Yeah, actually, I probably did...would tone down the language now but
the principle still stands...

> PDF surely is one of the best file formats we got in the last
> two decades.

The _format_ is a great idea...it's the bloody _viewer_ program
(Acrobat) that's horribly designed and awkward to use...

> I still prefer pure
> text files if possible (if I use a new Win32 function, the first
> I do is to convert the HTML file from msdn to text format, replacing
> any symbolic name by it's value, which eliminates the need for any
> header file, and add it to my private Win32 documentation). But
> if pure text format isn't sufficient, then there is nothing better
> than PDF format. HTML is nothing but fast food for multimedia
> junkies and inappropriate for presenting information.

HTML is useful because it's easy to process and is still readable in
source form...PDFs are binary files and while that's great for many
things, it's a disadvantage for other things...I couldn't have
separated out the PDF files by hand in a day unless it was in HTML...

> I even set
> up a small "WWW server" where HTML is replaced by PDF and HTTP by
> FTP. This way the pages are identical displayed on any computer,
> independent of the OS or browser. I even wrote my own Low Level
> PDF generation tool many years ago. There are many reasons to
> complain about HLA or the information in AoA, but surely no reason
> to complain about the PDF format (at least up to version 1.2, I
don't
> like the newer ones with extensions like javascript or encryption).

Oh, well...matter of opinion...and looks like we don't agree...

I'm not opposed to PDF format or what it tries to achieve...I just
think with that crap Acrobat viewer thing that it ruins an otherwise
great party...perhaps if there was a better PDF viewer then we'd have
"problem solved"...but Acrobat is slow and has really awkward controls
that really doesn't make it too "natural" to browse around...

Beth :)