Fun Stuff > CLIKC

PDFs arent like democracy at all

<< < (5/6) > >>

flfederation:

--- Quote from: Tova on 28 Sep 2020, 04:15 ---Use the right tool for the job

--- End quote ---
I thought you wanted to know why people didn't like PDFs. People don't just complain because they make the wrong choices-- people do that, but they also complain when Pointy-haired manager types (not to mention otherwise wonderful acquaintances) are the ones choosing the format.
For a relevant, albeit fictional example-- in the QC that most likely started this thread, the format was chosen by Hannelore's father or someone connected to him-- not Beeps or Roko. So the hassle of dealing with PDFs was hardly up to their personal choices. It's a guess that more often than not, when people grumble about a file format-- the choice was already made for them.

Tova:
Good point about having to use a format someone else chose. I sympathise with your pain there!

cybersmurf:
Since PDFs are meant to keep its layout locked towards a physical page, the format may seem clunky, noisy and weird to parse for QC AIs, so I can see why the format didn't catch on like it did in "our reality".
But at the same time it may seem weird how the "grandaddy of AI" would use PDF. I have an idea why though: he wanted to send a physical letter, human to human, and PDF was the closest digital representation to the real thing he could think of, although in that case outdated.

flfederation:

--- Quote from: cybersmurf on 29 Sep 2020, 13:49 ---at the same time it may seem weird how the "grandaddy of AI" would use PDF. I have an idea why though: he wanted to send a physical letter, human to human, and PDF was the closest digital representation to the real thing he could think of
--- End quote ---
Ignoring for the moment that it was likely done for humourous or storyline purposes, the truth is that in IT people find themselves in all sorts of weird, one-off situations where for some reason the tool they have available is strange or outdated. In every instance of this someone asks "why would you use _____" but there is often a story there.

For me, the weird part is the implication that there isn't a modern equivalent of PDF for page layout; weirder still is that sentient AI can't parse an ancient format that was native to printers for so many years at a time, or that it was an effort to find a plugin that could.

hedgie:
PDF is great for some things, like if one wants a specific page layout for the final whatever.  But, as others have said, it fails miserably outside that context.  It's like people setting widths in webpages in points or pixels, rather than percentages to make them more resolution/device-dependent.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page