> Von: [email protected]
[mailto:pharo-project-
> [email protected]] Im Auftrag von Yanni Chiu
> 
> On 02/05/12 10:53 AM, Sean P. DeNigris wrote:
> >
> > Stephan Eggermont wrote
> >>
> >> Don't you think it would be much less work to port Christian
Haider's
> >> work to Pharo?
> >
> > I was thinking the same thing. The usual Smalltalk duplication of
> > effort seems to have been taken to new heights with PDF libs ;-)
> 
> I've loaded Artefact, browsed the code, tried the demos.
> 
> I've not seen the code for PDF4Smalltalk, because I can't figure out
how to
> browse it without VW. 

Unfortunately, you can't :-(

> However, looking at the examples at:
>    https://gitorious.org/pdf4smalltalk/pages/Examples
> I get the (possibly mistaken) impression that the two frameworks do
slightly
> different things, but the final result is a PDF in both cases.
> 
> Looking at the PDFDemos of Artefact, it's clear how text and tables
can be
> written. However, looking at the PDF4Smalltalk examples, it looks like
you
> have to position the text and tables in your own code. Of course, I
may be
> completely wrong about PDF4Smalltalk, since I've not seen the full
code
> base.

I have not looked at Artefact, but from what I read, these are different
things, I guess.
PDF4Smalltalk is a system library providing full access to PDF. 
PDF objects are regular Smalltalk objects which you can read from PDF
files or create them with code and write them as PDF. The PDF basics are
quite complete and robust (I use it for a few years in production now),
but there are also lots of features desired :-) (TrueType fonts and
bitmap images to name a few).

It deals purely with PDF and does not add any higher concepts like
tables and other layouting facilities - in fact not even proper classes
for graphics or text... (high on my list when I find time). It is like
painting on a canvas: you are completely responsible for the placement
of everything.
To deal with that, Bob Nemec implemented Report4PDF which uses Seaside
like layouting for a report generator. It is done, works and is quite
nice! See
http://smalltalk-bob.blogspot.de/2012/01/pdf-report-and-law-of-demeter.h
tml

I'd love if someone would port this to Pharo! I would help with
answering questions, but I have not time to do anything substantial in
the moment...

Cheers,
        Christian

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