>> > The IRS makes $$ selling the information in machine readable > format. >
[ largely political/business commentary but hopefully relevant to people who would like to find new ways to use itext as some of these areas are huge financially. ] Certainly many information providers and their immediate partners do not want to use computers to automate data processing as this has various impacts on their businesses. >From arbitrage trading requiring only a few seconds of information delay ( even consider something like "NASDAQ" as being an adversary of manual methods ) , to people who sell clay tables and clean up auto accidents ( computer controlled anti-lock breaks ), artificial means to keep humans involved create all kinds of interests and conflicts. > If you want the tax tables (etc.) in a machine readable format (actually > formats, it was XML and CSV, last I looked) they are available for sale. When I was looking for an alternative to stone tables, I didn't get to asking questions this sophisticated of the IRS but in some places I've tried to make comments against these practices where there seems to be a compelling public interest, ( I found these on google, can't remember which is which any more and some edited better than others, FWIW) http://www.federalreserve.gov/SECRS/2008/December/20081210/OP-1338/OP-1338_7_1.pdf http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-04-09/s70409-2.pdf General defense of these practices is probably worth more detailed consideration but doesn't relate to the attributes of PDF files. > > > From: Iliadis Yannis > > Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 6:11 AM > > Have you ever considered the following possibilities: This whole topic makes my head hurt, so I try to avoid it... > > 1. The IRS is ignorant about the features a PDF has. It wasn't really relevant as they are just an example and one of my immediate needs but I've also mentioned others having similar problems. Scientific papers are about the only other class of document I get in reasonable quantities in PDF format and many of these authors are suprised a document has limited features etc. But, it is just easier to ask for them in this format since most places use them routinely. The SEC and NLM/NCBI seem to be aware of the problems, FDA and FCC not so much. The FDA accepts scanned PDF's in many cases, hence I use the terms "PDF" and "BMP" interchangeably LOL. While the SEC seems tolerate PDF files for somethings, they are moving to XBRL for clear computer readability. In any case, it got me to see what tools are available for working with these things now that adobe has managed to convince many people to use them. > > 2. That there are many people out there that don't have any programming skills > to create an application that would read the info of the 1040 form and thus > why > bother with creating something other than just a "View Model". People > have hands so let them write the data. I'm not saying that offering a PDF form is counterproductive or that non-text websites are evil. Just that there are important limitations in the way they are commonly implemented. It costs the IRS time and money to find manual mistakes but more generally I'm not sure anyone really benefits from this. If everyone got electronic 1099's etc you wouldn't even need a lot of manual entries in your tax returns- the whole process would have little burden and allow less room for cheating. ( I'm not saying all adobe or paper users are cheaters but this quickly becomes like discussing police radar detectors etc ). > > > > As somebody may say "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". It is information, not art. Many authors seem more interested in replicating a system "optimized for paper" ( parody of "optimized for IE 7 and above") than determining how to make most use of this new-fangled computer contraption. I'm sure they have perfectly understandable rationales, it doesn't change the fact that certain uses of PDF create "dead ends" for users and these dead ends seem easy and worthwhile to avoid in many cases. > > > > Yannis Iliadis > > > > > > 2009/4/10 Mike Marchywka> > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ Rediscover Hotmail®: Get quick friend updates right in your inbox. http://windowslive.com/RediscoverHotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Rediscover_Updates1_042009 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by: High Quality Requirements in a Collaborative Environment. Download a free trial of Rational Requirements Composer Now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/www-ibm-com _______________________________________________ iText-questions mailing list iText-questions@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/itext-questions Buy the iText book: http://www.1t3xt.com/docs/book.php
