On Sat, 20 Oct 2001, Samuel W. Heywood wrote:
<snip>
> Who but a windozer and a bloatware fan
> would want to create a PDF?
>
> Went there and checked it out.
>
> All the PDF stuff on that page is for windozers.
> The only advantage in using these shareware programs
> is that they are much less expensive than the real
> McCoy, but they still require windoze.
>
> Regards,
>
> Sam Heywood
I have to make a correction here!
A "windozer and a bloatware fan" would always prefer to create a microsoft
word document. For such a person ".doc" is the only document format. The
person in question might very well not be aware of the pdf format, or if
aware of it, might not understand the reason for such a thing to exist.
In my line of work, being able to view and print PDF documents is
compulsory. 99% of all technical documentation regarding electronics
(datasheets, application notes, etc.) is available in PDF format. Such a
document contains *all* the information necessary to view and print it,
regardless of the system being used. It contains elements like
the pagination and page format, custom font definitions, and may include
any kind of image or drawing, produced with either raster or vectorial
graphic methods. Please name any other format (excepting
PostScript of course :-)) which can claim to be as portable as PDF is.
Please keep in mind that PDF is not the result of a word processor output,
like .doc is, and it is not a language of SGML type (like HTML, XML,
MathML etc.). Still, almost any of these, after some further processing,
can become PDF, because PDF includes hypertext features like links and
forms. IMHO, PDF document can be regarded as *already printed* documents
but on a virtual support instead of paper. They can futher be "sticked"
on any support you like (screen or paper).
Being also a Linux user, I make heavily use of the PDF format which is "at
the tip of my fingers" here. I produce almost all of my technical
documentation using LaTeX and all my schematics or PCB projects end up in
PostScript format for further processing. It is not at all difficult for
me to use GhostScript for converting them into PDF, if i desire (i.e. for
sending them via e-mail somewhere). In this case I can be absolutely sure
that my recipient can view or print them exactly the way I intended to. I
am free of some annoying problems like codepage support on the recipient
machine (or if it possible for him to correctly see the accented
characters or not --- this is the biggest problem when exchanging
documents here, due mainly to the inconsistencies between different
Windows versions :-)).
Cristian Burneci
