31–40 of 384 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are lots of use cases for PDF where a web page is totally unsuitable.
As someone working on formats, I disagree with your generalization. But let's get into specifics. List the things about PDF that you believe can't be done with web pages?
I find the built-in PDF reader in Firefox to be bloat. It's OK, it works 95% of the time, but really I want to use a native PDF viewer. Is there a version of Firefox that removes this bloat? Given that Mozilla is very resource constrained, why are they working on features that aren't necessary?
And I also like that I can preview long-form PDFs in the browser, before choosing whether to save them and read them “for real.”
Imagine if every time you opened a direct-linked JPEG image in your browser, it treated it as an attachment, downloading it and opening it in your external image-previewer app, rather than rendering it as a synthesized HTML DOM wrapper around the image. Wouldn’t you be annoyed by how cluttered your Downloads directory would get with random files you never actually wanted to save?
“After entering data into these fields you can download the file to have the filled out version saved to your computer.” What’s the use case? Printing out filled-in forms? But otherwise, who would want the PDF in electronic format? It doesn’t seem like a practical way for users to submit data.
That built in PDF viewer is another feature that could have been an addon. It's bloat which increases the browser's attack surface. It's completely unneeded given that just about every OS ships with some kind of PDF reader out of the box.
AFAICT PDF.js is just another JavaScript application and thus as sandboxed as any other website.
I find the built-in PDF reader in Firefox to be bloat. It's OK, it works 95% of the time, but really I want to use a native PDF viewer. Is there a version of Firefox that removes this bloat? Given that Mozilla is very resource constrained, why are they working on features that aren't necessary?
Having a sandboxed PDF viewer that works 95% of the time is great. For those 5% circumstances where I am actively trying to view a PDF and it won't work in browser, I'll gladly go through the minimal effort to open it in an external viewer.
That built in PDF viewer is another feature that could have been an addon. It's bloat which increases the browser's attack surface. It's completely unneeded given that just about every OS ships with some kind of PDF reader out of the box.
That built in PDF viewer is another feature that could have been an addon. It's bloat which increases the browser's attack surface. It's completely unneeded given that just about every OS ships with some kind of PDF reader out of the box.
I looked into coding PDFs once. Then I closed my MacBook (Pro) and went for a long walk into the ocean. I think I almost got to America, but then I turned and swam back again. Turnd out I had just fallen asleep and had a nightmare. I was actually just working with regular text files, and everything was fine.
“After entering data into these fields you can download the file to have the filled out version saved to your computer.” What’s the use case? Printing out filled-in forms? But otherwise, who would want the PDF in electronic format? It doesn’t seem like a practical way for users to submit data.