Goetz Wohlberg wrote: > Hi, > > Malte made a very good point. The PDF Import Extension has two main > features. One is the PDF Import and the second is the Hybrid PDF. Hybrid > PDF is clearly ready for prime time and was already in Beta. You could > argue that Hybrid PDF with OpenOffice.org is actually the better PDF as > the PDF round trip is now possible with this extension. > > When I look at the feature list, PDF import made significant progress. > For example I think opening password-protected PDF files is pretty cool. > Of course there will always be PDF documents that can't be imported > accurately as PDF is not designed for editing. And we also can't compete > yet with PDF Editors based on OCR technology. But those apps can't > compete with our price ;.) and don't have Hybrid PDF. > > Stefan mentioned that users might be disappointed when they try the > "final" PDF Import extension. This is a valid point. To set the right > expectation we created the feature list and the list of non supported > features. Users now have a chance to read first what they can expect.
But there's another problem with the PDF importer: many PDF files I tried to import either took ages to load (sometimes I had to terminate OOo, don't know if it was a loop or just taking so long) or crashed. Let's face it: the PDF import is far away from being at the same quality level as other extensions. The hybrid PDF support is great and IMHO it deserves to be a direct part of OOo - not an extension. > You could argue that we should implement feature xyz first and then call > it "Final". I'm sure that we find even more features if we have done so. > And there is one more point I'd like to make. There are a number of > users that don't touch Beta versions. This extension is in Beta for one > year now! So it's time that a few more users try PDF editing and learn > about Hybrid PDF! The length of the Beta phase alone shouldn't be an argument to make it final. OTOH you could have found how we can solve our problem of always releasing OOo in time: we just should start the beta phase a year before we have planned to release, as after a year it will be time to let more users get the new featzres and learn about them. So the release will be due, regardless how many bugs and crashes we still have. ;-) Ciao, Mathias -- Mathias Bauer (mba) - Project Lead OpenOffice.org Writer OpenOffice.org Engineering at Sun: http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS Please don't reply to "[email protected]". I use it for the OOo lists and only rarely read other mails sent to it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
