[OS X TeX] Re: List of feature requests on this list

[Ross Moore]

Hi Victor,

On 08/07/2008, at 1:19 PM, Victor Ivrii wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 4:19 AM, Ross Moore <ross at ics.mq.edu.au> wrote:
>> Hi Victor,

>> Also, the term "Snapshot" is now being used in two different ways.
>> For Skim, a better term might be "Spyglass", or something else;
>> especially since the view is scrollable, so not really a snapshot
>> at all.
>
> As an author I would like to have a control what will be in the
> Spyglass window.

I agree.
there are times when you'd like to use an existing window
for a view of a different portion of content;
other times you want a new window, as Skim currently does.

>>> paper (2) Adobe' people think that they already provided us with all
>>> tools needed.

Do you have an email or something which expresses this view?
If so, I'd like to see it, please.

>>> Luckily Ross demonstrated a solution in a different mailing list
>>> (works only in AR since only it understands Javascript).  
>>> Hopefully he
>>> will make a package.
>>
>>  ... which is one of the downsides of my solution, which
>> is not shared by Skim's "Snapshots".
>
> The problem with Skim or any pdf-viewer different from AA/AR is that
> they are not full-featured and cannot display JS animations, or
> movies, or u3d files. The latter is not exotic anymore: Mathematica
> can export to PLY, Maple+Javaview to OBJ, Meshlab can convert both PLY
> and OBJ to U3D (the color is lost so far)

Sure.
Everything you want is not yet all available
while working within a single browser...

>> The 2nd downside of my solution is that you cannot choose between
>> the actions. My Javascript button screens the underlying hyperlink.
>
> Yes and the same is true for fancytooltips but even in the worst way:
> even without JS hyperlink is blocked
>
>> It is reliant on the browser to pass a click through when JS is
>> not activated.  AR and eVince (for Linux) do this correctly,
>> but Preview and Skim do not.
>
> Well, none of this is truly correct behavior IMHO. A reader should be
> able to chose between following link and popup without enabling
> /disabling js

... and again I agree that having the choice is best.


>> Thus it is really a matter of requesting the browser vendors
>> to implement all the methods that we researchers find useful;
>> preferably with a consistent interface for using them.
>>
>> Having Skim doing some things differently to Preview and AR
>> is useful for showing Apple and Adobe what we'd like them
>> to be doing too.
>
> Will they listen?

I'm going to give a talk at the DML 2008 workshop, later this
month. I'll be including a discussion of these issues.

     http://www.fi.muni.cz/~sojka/dml-2008.xhtml

If you don't mind, I'll use some of your expressed views.

Hopefully I'll do a good enough job, and the audience
will be sufficiently receptive, that something positive
may result.

Furthermore, I'll show this kind of thing at TUG 2008,
during the week before DML. So even more people will get
to see the usefulness. This may create a way to get to
the actual coders and developers.


>> Skim giving you the choice of "Click" and "Cmd-click" is a good
>> solution, IMHO.
>
> Yes, as long as AR is not required due to multimedia content
>
>    Victor


Cheers,

	Ross

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ross Moore                                       ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                           office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                             tel: +61 (0)2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia  2109                          fax: +61 (0)2 9850 8114
------------------------------------------------------------------------