Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript • Hacker News Board

Re: Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

#91

Post by notatoad » Sat, Sep 15, 2012, 6:45 PM UTC

bpatrianakos wrote: post #89

notatoad wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but for some reason I've yet to come across a page that adds to the existing context menu until today. the reason is likely because browser compatibility for the context menu js api is pretty minimal [1]. firefox can use it on pages that are only going to be displayed in firefox, but for the internet at large it's pretty useless. [1] http://caniuse.com/menu

What about Google Docs? Their context menu seems to work cross browser (even on ie9!). Maybe my assumption that they're using HTML5 for this is wrong but if I'm right then what you see on Gdocs is a complete replacement of the regular menu which is pretty cool but also quite annoying for me at times. Please correct me if I'm wrong (which is very likely).

Google docs is not appending stuff to the browser's context menu. they're catching the right-click action and replacing the standard context menu with their own one drawn in HTML.

Re: Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

#92

Post by geofft » Sun, Sep 16, 2012, 3:41 AM UTC

crisnoble wrote: post #43

jowiar wrote: post #3

1) From a technical perspective, this is damn cool - exceedingly well done. Color me very impressed. 2) I hope I never actually see anyone using this on a website, attempting to make things "easier." Between Scribd and Slideshare, and Adobe trying to force its hideous crash-prone plugins into my browser, there are already enough people making a mess out of what is one of the more well-thought-out aspects of OS X. Giv…

Personally I wish all sites used this instead of scribd/slideshare or opening up external programs. This will just work on different browsers, different OS etc. Plus you can send links like this: http://mozilla.github.com/pdf.js/web/viewer.html#page=6&... To send a user to s specific part of the page. Right now usually you just send the pdf link and have to say, "check out the image on page 6". Keeping the pdf in the…

> This will just work on different browsers, different OS etc.

For values of "different" that mean "as long as they all have fast processors and accelerated JavaScript". I tried this in a non-Apple browser on my iPad, which means no JITted Javascript interpreter, and it basically hung. I haven't even attempted it on my smartphone, which does have a native PDF-reading application.

Re: Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

#93

Post by esolyt » Sun, Sep 16, 2012, 8:49 PM UTC

mcrittenden wrote: post #62

esolyt wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's correct. I use Chromium on Arch Linux and it doesn't come with the proprietary pdf reader by default.

You said "by default" which is correct but just for the sake of completeness, the built in Chrome PDF reader can easily be added to Chromium on Arch using this package from the AUR: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=44148 I've been using it for almost a year now without issue.

Me too! In fact, that's why I said "by default" :)

Similarly, Pepper Flash Player can also be integrated from AUR.

Re: Pdf.js: PDF Reader in JavaScript

#94

Post by jcheng » Fri, Sep 28, 2012, 3:10 PM UTC

bpatrianakos wrote: post #87

jcheng wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our web-based IDE[1] does exactly this, including syncing between source and PDF, using PDF.js. Works great for the most part! [1] http://rstudio.org

Are you guys actually generating PDFs from user input? If so, I'd be really interested in finding out how you do it if you don't mind sharing. I've found a number of apps that allow you to generate PDFs server side but often the installation is near impossible (dependency issues), e rendering is not good enough, or the API makes using it with a web app clunky. I did find a solution (don't recall the name) that actual…

(Just saw this comment, sorry for not replying earlier)

We use LaTeX to generate the PDF. You could try pandoc if you're going from HTML (or markdown) to PDF.