david wrote: > Hello Bruno, Paulo and all of the iText dev, gurus, users, ranters and ravers. > I am a Java programmer and a long time user of iText (since 2001). > I recently had a job interview. The interview went south right away with > the inteviewer attacking my choice and use of the iText Java package > to produce SQL generated reports for a Java project described in my resume.
It's a very autistic treat: to lose yourself in a detail, and completely miss the whole picture. > I explained to the interviewer that PDF is just re-defined PostScript > which make working with PostScript printers a lot easier. Good answer. PS isn't PDF; PDF isn't PS. I often make the comparison with cars: you don't go to a F1 Grand Prix driving a posh Rolls Royce. You don't go shopping in a Formula 1 car. Although it's not impossible. Alvin Straight has crossed different US states driving a lawn mower. > And, iText makes the entire problem of producing programmatic > printable reports a breeze. Well, in some cases, you'd want to use a higher level business intelligence and reporting tool. But when you want a fast, lightweight solution, and if you aren't afraid of programming, I agree. > Using my own statements against me the interviewer > claims he can program in PostScript dismissing > the need for the iText package. Of course he can. But... the end result will be a PS file (that he can convert to a PDF file with another tool). We're using iText to serve document to end users who have a browser and Adobe Reader. They know PDF files by name; they are unaware of the existence of PostScript. Also: because of the fact that PS is a programming language, the layout is made by the PS interpreter. This means: more CPU needed on the client machine, slower rendering, not sure in advance what the layout will look like,... > The interviewer went on to say hypothetically that > the iText package is probably wrought with bugs There are bugs in iText, as there are in almost every software product, but due to the massive amount of users using iText, bugs are being reported and fixed in a very early stage. Another advantage is the fact that iText is Open Source Software: if you find a bug, you can fix it. Caveat: some area's are known to be delicate: class Table, certain indentation problems,... If the interviewer refers to those problems, he's right, but there are sufficient workarounds to avoid these problems. > and everytime the interviewer's versioned software > is incremented to the next version the iText package > would break the versioned software and have to be fixed > everytime it is used. That's not always unavoidable, although we do our best. He may either refer to the problematic Table class, or to the 2.0 release (but we warn people that 2.0.x isn't stable yet; we still need a few months to finalize it). > The interviewers statements were made using the view > of what would happen if his companies software was > to use the iText package. So my questions are: > > 1. Is programming directly in PostScript better than using iText? That's the same as asking if it's better to drive a lawn mower or a Formula 1 car. You'll lose the race with your lawn mower, but ruin your garden with your F1 car. This question can only be answered in the context of a project. Sometimes using PS will be better, sometimes using PDF will be better. In the latter case, sometimes using iText will be a bad idea, sometimes it will be the best solution. iText doesn't provide a single answer to all questions. It's good at what it's intended for. > 2. would iText break versioned software everytime > the target software is versioned? iText is a Free / Open Source Software library that is very much alive. We release monthly. It is however not necessary to upgrade to the new version monthly. iText has been around since 1999; so it has been integrated in many different products (Eclipse/BIRT, JasperReports, PdfTk, Cold Fusion,...). When software is that old and that widely used, you can safely assume it's a stable product. You won't have many problems if you move from version 1.4.0 to version 1.4.7. However: if you move from 0.30 to 1.3, you will find that iText has changed dramatically. The same goes more or less for changing to iText 2.0; although every feature described in the iText book (iText 1.4.8) WILL WORK EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED IN THE BOOK in iText 2.0. I hope this answers your questions. best regards, Bruno ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ iText-questions mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions Buy the iText book: http://itext.ugent.be/itext-in-action/
