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Re: [ANN] PDF Classes 2.0

To: REALbasic NUG <realbasic-nug at lists dot realsoftware dot com>
Subject: Re: [ANN] PDF Classes 2.0
From: Karen <keatk at comcast dot net>
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 23:56:13 -0500
Delivered-to: realbasic-nug at lists dot realsoftware dot com
References: <BFB28333 dot 5B60%Roph at kc dot rr dot com>

On Nov 29, 2005, at 11:14 PM, Roph wrote:

Question: If you wanted to render to a window on the screen while drawing,
but save to a PDF file for printing, would you:

Abstract the drawing interface to render to screen or PDF based on a
variable?

Short answer is yes... but it's a bit of work.

The approach I took way back when Asher released his first version (which was all opens source) was to modify the classed i needed (and created supports for groups which he initially did not have) such that you could output to the screen using Object2D (and group2Ds - BTW Asher did not initially support groups of PDf objects) and create PDF's from the same instances.

Essentially I did that by composing object2D's with modified versons Asher's PFD objects into single classes and using only the capability of object2Ds (Groups also required changes to his early framework).. This was so I could do WYWIWG PDF's and be able to select and copy vector graphics objects to the clipboard to paste into other apps (like Word), i did have to significant changes to Asher's underlying code.


I got small subset of the functionality working that fit my immediate needs for the app i was working one ... and intended to eventually extend add classes to implement more Object2D capabilities...

But a rev of Asher's classes that added more functionality (and the functionality I had added) did it in a way that was incompatible with my approach.

To update to use the new capabilities (which I wanted) i would have had to change a lot of the way i was doing things or learn the PDF spec well enough to be able to update my branch of his original code... and i did not have the time for either AND at work we switched to all PC's and they installed acrobat on all of them so anyone could just print to PDFs (and you can on all Macs anyway) and all i was doing was producing simple reports for distribution ... so I never got back to it.


- karen
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