[OS X TeX] Re: Worrying about MS (was Keeping this list healthy)

[Victor Ivrii]

On 12/14/06, Adam Goldstein <adam.goldstein at jhu.edu> wrote:
> [snip]
> > It is all the more unacceptable to me as all you needed to do was just
> > to copy-paste your document into your email as plain text or, should
> > you have felt that its formatting was essential, to save it as RTF,
> > PDF or HTML, all non-proprietary formats, before attaching it.
> >
> [snip]
>
> Aren't PDF and RTF both proprietary, even though the standards are published? I was under the impression that RTF was created by MS.
> I suppose one issue is, what is required to read it properly? In this case, of course, RTF and PDF readers are widely available. They are not therefore non-proprietary, public, or free "as in freedom".
>

Not only readers are free but also there are free writers and not from
Adobe or MS respectively. Also RTF seems to be completely fixed and
PDF1.6 as well (I am sure even PDF1.7 is fixed but just trying to be
cautious; still pdftex 1.30 so far creates PDF1.4 and pdf 1.40
(reached rc-2) creates  PDF1.5 even if one can make files properly
displayed by AR7.05 and above).

One needs to distinguish between PDF and RTF. There are plenty of
full-featured RTF reader but only one full-featured PDF reader.

In certain sense both RTF and (older) PDF formats live now  their own
lives, independently on their creators.

> --
> Dr. Adam M. Goldstein
> Email (use "@" for "-at-"): adam.goldstein-at-jhu.edu
> Home page: http://shiftingbalance.wordpress.com
>
>
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-- 
========================
Victor Ivrii, Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto
http://www.math.toronto.edu/ivrii

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