I just downloaded the mac version of XPDF as binaries. It looks like they would be easier to install than code files but I have never embedded any binaries before and do not know the correct method to call them. It would be nice to make at least a basic pdf reader external and then it can be improved. It would be a good lesson.
JB > On May 4, 2016, at 10:28 AM, Paul Dupuis <p...@researchware.com> wrote: > > On 5/4/2016 12:13 PM, RM wrote: >> I would suppose the ideal thing would be both something that allows >> one to render a PDF document, >> and extract all or part of an embedded text layer (if one exists in >> the original PDF). > > The XPDF external from LiveCode for OSX and Win is based on Google's > PDFium library. I can say this because I know something about the > details of XPDF. Researchware (my company) development XPDF and recently > transferred the rights to LiveCode. > > Richard is correct in that the XPDF external not only opens and displays > a PDF, but allows zooming, navigation, layout, hyperlinks, selection of > text (for PDFs with editable text) or any potion of any page as an image > selection, and allows you to extract text or images. It also supports > password protected PDFs and more. Therefore, if ALL you want is just to > display pages from a PDF it is certainly more than you may need. The > same could be said about the feature set of LiveCode itself. > > Richmond just showed that some people want more - in his case, > extraction of all of part of the text. If you ONLY want to do that under > script control, then that would be an incremental effort over just > displaying a PDF. > > If you want the USER to be able to select text (or images), then that is > a significant chunk of work beyond just displaying a PDF as the PDFium > library contains NO APIs for user selection and that must be original > code added by the external. A large amount of effort went into making > sure user selection of text was as good as Adobe or Preview or Foxit's > PDF viewers, which was definitely not as easy as one might expect (or hope)! > > I can tell you that a LOT of developer time (i.e money) went into the > creation, QA testing, and refinement of XPDF. > > Obviously, since Google PDFium is open source, anyone can create an > alternative to XPDF, perhaps an even better version. If people want to > build one, I encourage it. A competitive market of LiveCode PDF widgets > just gives me more choice for my company's PDF needs ;-) However, I > offer the caution of experience that there are a lot more little > "gotchas" in working with PDFium that anyone may realize, even after > reading the APIs, and making another from scratch may be much more work > than people might expect. > > I think those interested in PDF might be better off continuing to lobby > for LiveCode to offer XPDF as an add-on (like so many other excellent LC > add-ons from Chartmaker to Wordlib to RRP Spell) for a appropriate > price. It seems only logical that eventually they would convert it to an > LC8 Widget as well. > > > _______________________________________________ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription > preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode