[pdftex] PTEX.FileName contains file system information

[Hans Hagen]

James Quirk wrote:

>>>> Upward compatibilty is very important, but it should not be a dogma:
>>>> In a case like this -- which does not even concern the typesetting --
>>>> adding a switch (either a commandline switch or a primitive to be set)
>>>> should be considered as correcting a bug (an oversight), and
>>>> the default setting should be the more cautious choice.
>>>> (A message in the logfile could be added.)
>>> well, as mentioned before, it's not a bug nor an oversight (actually, 
>>> adding full resource names has been very custom in publishing because it 
>>> permitted to include a low res graphic to be replaced by a high res in 
>>> the final stage), it's a feature present for a long time now; and now 
>>> this feature can be disabled
>> My vote is with Martin and Hans. pdftex 1.50 it is.
> 
> If the requisite switch is provided and it can be added to a site 
> configuration file, does it really matter one way or the other? 
> The answer is "No" for experts who know of the existence of the switch 
> and are fully able to tweak their setups. But as Stephan pointed out, 
> for casual users the answer is likely "Yes". For they won't know
> of the switch, or they won't feel comfortable tweaking their setup.
> Therefore I think many pdftex users would side with Stephan and Peter. 
> As for myself, I will accept whatever pdftex's developers are prepared
> to support.

an option if to convince your macro package writer to disable it by default

> I do, however, have the following question. 
> 
> Why does PTEX use:
> 
>   /PTEX.FileName   <string> 
>   /PTEX.PageNumber <number>
>   /PTEX.InfoDict   <object ref>
> 
> rather than:
> 
>    /PTEX <<
>       /FileName   <string>
>       /PageNumber <number>
>       /InfoDict   <object ref>
>    >>
> 
> I would have thought the dictionary approach more in keeping with PDF's 
> design, and it would certainly provide a cleaner path forward when adding 
> new pieces of information to support custom post-processors and the like.  
> Therefore I'm wondering was the dictionary approach specifically precluded 
> by Adobe when Hans registered PTEX?  Certainly AR is not phased by the 
> contents of a /PTEX dictionary, provided it is syntactically correct.

the ptex namespace has been registered many acrobat versions ago

the ptex<dot>whatever design was driven by the fact that acrobat then 
views them in the document properties (you can add extra keys btw)

nowadays viewers view anything that is <namespace>.<name>'d

Hans

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