From: "der Mouse" <mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca>
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 3:47 PM
<snip>
There are only
a very few methods that are currently accepted as
packaged scanned documents. Only one method is considered universal,
PDF's.
I think we have good evidence in this very thread that PDFs *aren't*
universal. (I don't doubt they are considered universal by some
people; those people are wrong. I'd even go so far as to say that
anyone who considers *any* format as universal is, strictly, wrong -
there probably are a few people who can't do anything useful with even
as widely supported a format as plain text.)
Your use of the passive voice is clever. You are hiding a great deal
with it, but I'm not going to let you get away with it. Specifically,
are currently accepted as
is considered universal
By whom?
I listed three alternative packagings; you have given no evidence to
support your implicit claim that they are not accepted or that they are
not considered universal - claims that are impossible to refute because
you have not specified by whom they are putatively "accepted" or
"considered". Presumably you will claim existence proofs by example,
most likely with yourself as the example, in that you do not accept
other packagings, and you do consider PDFs universal - but so what?
You may be willing to use yourself as the touchstone of format
approval, but I doubt very many other people will.
/~\ The ASCII der Mouse
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There are only a handful of online document packaging formats with any level
of acceptance including but not limited to: PDF, PS, and DjVu.
While all of these formats are available PDF is in a whole different class
as far as acceptance goes. I dare anyone too survey the number of documents
in PDF format vs. all other formats combined.
While PDF's are not accepted by all none the less it is the only
"universally accepted format".
Personally I would prefer DjVu but I don't wish to fight the universe.
Randy