I think that there are adequate postscript previewers on Windows;
I use Ghostgum gsview 3.5. I'm sure there are ps2pdf programs
also. Since Ghostview also reads pdf and write ps, there is a
conversion in that direction.
so one can, I think, make everything into postscript. And from
there, perhaps into PDF.
Just a thought.
RJF
C Y wrote:
>--- Robert Dodier <robert_dodier@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>>C Y <smustudent1@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>
>
>
>>>I imagine, since we are creating the pdf document fairly directly,
>>>the relevant plotting output can be included as part of a larger
>>>file - just have output modes for "part of document"
>>>and "standalone pdf".
>>>Of course, maybe it would be more complicated, but I don't quite
>>>see why.
>>>
>>>
>>AFAIK it is not straightforward to glom pieces of PDF
>>files together to make a whole PDF file.
>>
>>
>
>Right. I didn't mean grabbing a pdf and wedging it into another pdf, I
>was thinking more along the lines of regenerating all pdf content when
>the command "print notebook" was used. We can retain the points
>generated by the plot command so we don't have to do a complicated plot
>calculation twice, and simply use them as part of the data in creating
>the larger page by page pdf.
>
>
>
>>PDF is a binary format (even if all bytes are printable 7 bit ascii)
>>-- a PDF file comprises a number of objects and there is a
>>lookup table at the end which tells the byte offset of
>>each object within the file. So to combine PDF's it would
>>probably be necessary to parse the file to extract objects,
>>combine the objects, and rebuild the offset table. Or,
>>maintain each object separately and only output the objects
>>plus their offset table when there are no more objects to add.
>>
>>
>
>I don't quite see why we would want to do anything except either a)
>standalone pdf files with plots, in which case it's not an issue or b)
>a nice page/poster/etc. format of the entire document, and all
>necessary pdf can be created when making the document from original
>source date. Instead of retaining the pdf of the plot, we just create
>a pdf using the data as part of the larger document. We probably don't
>want to generate pdf anyway until the user asks for a file output,
>unless I misunderstand the proposed uses for cl-pdf.
>
>
>
>>PDF has several capabilities over and above PS, such as
>>internal links, although I don't know that all such
>>capabilities are useful in a technical context. However,
>>a PDF viewer seems to be more common on MS Windows systems
>>than a PS viewer, and that may be the strongest argument
>>in favor of PDF for Maxima.
>>
>>
>
>That is essentially THE argument. I like the ability to select text
>from a pdf using acrobat/xpdf, but I don't imagine that will prove
>particularly useful in a mathematical context except perhaps to copy a
>1D input expression. However, IMO the ubiquity and general usefulness
>of pdf is enough to validate it, other concerns aside.
>
>CY
>