Lars-Einar Jansson wrote:
> Well, I both agree and disagree. I recently downloaded
> Dolby Laboratories' "Frequently Asked Questions about
> Dolby Digital" in pdf- format. This was my first attempt
There's a bit of humour in that. Dolby has a similar
proprietary role in audio processing as PDF does in
digital documents.
> at using pdf, and I was rather surprised about what you
> could do with it. When printed out on my small Canon
> bubble-jet printer, it looked like a xerox-copy of a
> printed brochure, with three-column text in various fonts,
> lots of illustrations and, as far as I can understand,
> with exactly the same page layout as was intended.
Yes, I've used it too for technical literature where the
images and layout are important. It looks great. I wonder
though if the same couldn't be done with one of the
standard FAX formats.
<snip>
> On the other hand, for text-only documents of the kind
> Heimo mentions: laws, regulations etc., I agree that these
> should preferrably also be available as plain text, which
> would also be much quicker in downloading as these
> pdf-files can be rather "bloated".
I agree with that as well. Textual information is best
left as plain text.
Heimo wrote:
>> The effect of this is a hardly disguised form of "secret" laws -
>> rather a sign of dictatorial regimes; while among the constituing
>> elements of democarcy there's the clear conditions for "laws" (i.e.,
>> all sorts of rulings pertaining to, and information concerning, the
>> public at large) to be "public".
To which Lars replied:
>I think you are over-reacting a bit here. There is
>certainly not a conspiracy here to keep laws secret for
>the unfortunate ones who cannot afford the latest in
"Conspiracy" is a common misconception. In fact it is a
common way to belittle the kind of ideas which I beleive
Heimo was referring to.
> computer equipment. I think rather it is sheer stupidity,
> some laziness and perhaps a (misinformed?) notion that
> "everybody" who owns a computer also can run Adobe Acrobat
> Reader.
I agree. And that is certainly not a "conspiracy". It is,
nevertheless, real.
> Besides, there are probably rather few who really
> cannot. It doesn't take the very latest in equipment - a
> 486 with a VGA-screen will do fine.
You are probably right. However, I think it is more a
matter of principle.
> Anyone who has tried with something less than that? And
> what about non-Windows-OSes? Is Acrobat available for
> OS/2, MacOS, Linux et al?
I'm sure it would work fine with a 386. The point, in my
mind, is that it is a proprietary format being used for
things which are, by nature, nonproprietary.
Cheers,
Ole Juul
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