Hello,
I must disclaim that I've not used these packages yet and would welcome being
informed if I'm mistaken.
It looks like both TeX Live and Debian have had reservations about shipping
AcroTeX and eForms because at the time it was considered, the only PDF readers
that appeared to support the features were proprietary ones. However, it seems
that free PDF viewers have made great strides in the past several years
especially in supporting these advanced features, so I think their inclusion in
the standard distribution should be reconsidered.
Free PDF viewers, especially Okular with the Poppler backend, have gained
support for many of the features that have been standardized, including non-XFA
forms, digital/cryptographic signature support, and JavaScript, all things that
eForms appears to assist in making. There are probably still some things that
AcroTeX and eForms can do that only proprietary readers support, but unless
software patents muddy the waters, it seems like this can improve in client
software at any time.
Frankly I'm itching to use this functionality in my documents, but as a strong
advocate for free software as well, I'd like to be informed if there are any
freedom or distribution issues remaining.
Thanks,
John
P.S. I'm having trouble subscribing, so please CC me on replies.
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