I think we are talking about two different things here. The parsing process to get the tokens, and the parsing process to follow the PDF file layout and to form and follow the higher level structures such as Xref. Tokens didn’t change. File layout and higher level structures did like - Linerization or Xref Streams. Dependent on the PDF standard some are permitted some are not.
BR Maruan Am 10.03.2014 um 10:06 schrieb John Hewson <j...@jahewson.com>: >> The base syntax has not changed. But the elements described by the base have. > > > If the syntax hasn’t changed then there can’t be anything in the parser which > is version-specific. > > -- John > > On 10 Mar 2014, at 01:43, Maruan Sahyoun <sahy...@fileaffairs.de> wrote: > >> Hi John, >> >> it’s not about PDF versions but PDF versions and standards. >> >> The base syntax has not changed. But the elements described by the base have. >> >> BR >> Maruan Sahyoun >> >> Am 10.03.2014 um 09:20 schrieb John Hewson <j...@jahewson.com>: >> >>> Hi Maruan >>> >>>> As of today PDFBox has no formal support for specific PDF versions in a >>>> way that a specific version can be enforced, validated ... >>> >>> Perhaps that is because there is not much demand for this? Nowadays >>> everyone has instant access to the latest version of Adobe Reader so >>> checking that a PDF can be opened with a specific version of Adobe Reader >>> is not that useful anymore. There might be some niche cases, but I can’t >>> think what they would be. For cases where it’s important that a PDF file is >>> valid then a format such as PDF/A or PDF/X must be used instead as >>> “vanilla" PDF is ambiguous. >>> >>>> The PDFBox PDF/A validation does a good job for PDF/A 1b but it can not be >>>> easily extended to other standards. >>> >>> Yes, PDF/A is carefully validated because it is for archival purposes, >>> unlike regular PDF files. >>> >>>> Do you think that there is a need for a more formal support of such >>>> standards and versions? The would influence some of the design decisions >>>> for the parser and affect the base objects. >>> >>> >>> I can’t think of a reason why someone would want to parse a specific PDF >>> version, so my answer is no, I don’t think there is such a need. Has the >>> syntax of PDF even changed that much over the different versions? >>> >>> — John >>> >> >
