this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2024
43 points (100.0% liked)

Linux

5278 readers
641 users here now

A community for everything relating to the linux operating system

Also check out [email protected]

Original icon base courtesy of [email protected] and The GIMP

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
43
PDF/AAAARGH (nibblestew.blogspot.com)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/linux
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Sheesh can we get on with replacing pdf?

[–] FizzyOrange 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Eh, it practice it works extremely well. I can't remember a single instance where a PDF document rendered incorrectly.

The format is very old so it's not surprising it has picked up a few WTFs. I'm happy to keep those hidden below the abstraction.

[–] TheV2 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It works well for the actual purpose. But I'd be happy about a more accessible format for development. Currently whenever I need accurate reading/writing capabilities for PDF in a Rust project, at some point I fear that I might have to dedicate my life to PDF. And then I just give up.

[–] FizzyOrange 7 points 1 week ago

PDF writing isn't too bad IMO, since you don't need to understand the whole spec. I've written a PDF writer for maps from scratch and it was fairly easy and not too much code.

PDF reading though... Yeah I'm happy to leave that to people with more time and use their libraries.

A modern format would be nice, but I don't think it would be anywhere near nice enough to give up how universal PDF is.