On Tue, 6 Feb 2001 05:06:53 -0500, Kenneth Alan Boyd Ramsay wrote:
> From: Robert Deering <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> On Fri, 12 Jan 2001 23:47:29 +0100, Bjorn Simonsen wrote:
>>> Figured some of you might find this of interest:
>>> #quote:
>>> PC DOS 7 Technical Update
>>> Document Number GG24-4459-00
>>> February 1995
>>> International Technical Support Organization
>>> Boca Raton Center
>>> Abstract
>>> [...] This book is a technical reference, upgraded from IBM DOS
>>> 5.02 and written for DOS programmers, who develop applications
>>> for IBM Personal Computers or compatible systems. [...]
>>> #unquote
>>> Can be viewed as individual html pages, or downloaded in
>>> PDF format (I just did) - 402 pages, 882Kb - from here:
>> html: uses javascript right of the bat
>> pdf: shows only errors and blank pages with acrodos
>> Not even attempting ghostcript 5.1 (latest for DOS). A not even marginal
>> converter and no reader at all.
>> IT'S A DOS MANUAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> Not sure this is exactly right, but it may help:
> Get DOS "pdftotext" at ftp://ftp.foolabs.com/pub/xpdf/xpdf-0.90-dos.zip
Tried it, not on this manual, but on many other things. It's good to
have an effort at such a utility, but haven't found anything that
produces readable output more than 20% of the time yet. Also, some
documents don't allow text (or for that matter, graphics) to be
extracted. Sure, it can be done anyway. But that's a violation of
Adobe's terms for using the info on the format. Jail or fine, take your
pick if they give you a choice.
Adobe does absolutely everything to imply that it's an open standard.
They haven't gone so far as to say it outright, though. Interesting
omission.
Of course, I shouldn't be worried. PDF is readable on any computer in
the world. Thus spake Adobe:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/main.html
They may call it advertising.
It's a lie.
It's fraud.
> Also, I believe that there is an Internet-enabled pdf-to-text facility at the
> http://www.adobe.com site.
http://access.adobe.com/simple_form.html
I feed the pdf spec to it regularly, as mentioned earlier.
Governments around the world are facing legal action because of their
use of pdf. Seems it's hard to handle with tools used by those with
various handicaps, esp. sight impaired. Adobe's been trying to fix it.
They haven't. They won't. They can't. That simple.
Case in point: feed anything of any size to the above URL. Not only does
it not come out formatted (easily do-able with html), but underline and
other attributes become "stuck on" for the remainder of the document.
They can't decode their own format.
Not surprising.
They didn't know how to write one in the first place.
Thank you for your effort, Boyd. I appreciate it, really.
To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message.
Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
More info can be found at;
http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
