[pdftex] Re: pdftex-pdfcrypt - The Missing Link(?).

[Michael Chapman]

On Monday 09 April 2001 09:41, Ricardo Sanchez Carmenes wrote:
> . . . version of pdftex with encryption.
>
> available at  ftp://bioinf.medicina.uniovi.es/pub/. . . 
>
> Sources have been sent to Han The Thanh but they are not yet integrated
> into the regular release.
>

I would like to congratulate Ricardo for his work on pdfcrypt. My work is 
fairly simple and I cannot claim to have 'tortured' his latest ersion, but 
for us it works.
In implementing PDF with TeX (well, LaTeX) it is for us the "Missing Link". 
The one aspect that was not available, and was becoming increasinglyly 
niggling in its absence.
'Locking' files may seem anathema to some in the pdftex culture of sharing 
and common enterprise, but let me cite what our first two uses will be:

1. I am treasurer of the WWW Virtual Library project. I am due to publish the 
accounts. I will now do so not only by plain text e-mail but 'for the record' 
as a PDF document.
Obviously any inspired 14-year-old cracker could 'forge' a look-alike balance 
sheet, but by closing the file to alterations it stops anyone innocently 
(officiously) fiddling with them -the gratuitous correction of a seeming 
typo' before passing them on, etc. There is thus one document (with all its 
typo's :-)> ) as a document of record.

2. We publish a (free) newsletter. This has split into a plain text version 
and an on-screen (was HTML, now moving to PDF on-screen) version. 
Printing out the sreen version looses you all the link information. I will 
lock out printing on the 'colour edition' to force naive users to use the 
better edition for them. (I think that is constructive and not over nanny-ing 
?)

So apologies the length of a message to a discussion list, but I do feel 
Ricardo's work is of great importance, and have been surprised by the lack of 
other comments voiced.
If this is to go into the revised pdfTex we need -I suspect- voices of 
support. (Equally if this is an esoteric, minority interest, we need that 
saying too -I hope not!)

Thank you,
	Michael Chapman
	Culoz, France.