[pdftex] FYI: Feature Requests for Adobe Reader

[James Quirk]

Ross,

On Tue, 8 Apr 2008, Bob Howlett wrote:

> Ross Moore wrote:
> > 
> > Here is an example that I'd like people to test,
> > in different version of PDF reader software and
> > different OS versions.
> > 
> > 
> > Get this mathematical paper:  (no subscription required)
> > 
> >     http://www.austms.org.au/Publ/Bulletin/V72P1/pdf/721-5019-LoPo.pdf
> > 
> > Go to the page numbered 21  (actually page 9 of 18).
> > Easiest is to click on the Figure 5 or Figure 6 bookmark.
> > 
> > Scroll down a few lines, if necessary (according to your
> > window view) until you find the reference to Figure 7.
> > The '7' should be blue, indicating a hyperlink.
> > 
> > Move the mouse over the 7, ready to click.
> > You should get a red rectangle, outlining a button.
> > Click the button.  What happens for you?
As I helped you put together the dragable widget capability featured in 
the above paper, I should point out that the approach will be largely 
redundant come AR9. Specifically, if you take a look at 
Adobe MAX Chicago - Sneak Peeks:

http://www.peterelst.com/blog/2007/10/03/adobe-max-chicago-sneak-peeks/

you will see that AR9 will provide native support for dragging swf's
across a PDF document. Thus in addition to having a movable, static image
as in your application, it will be possible to have dynamic graphics,
produced by inline simulations. The rammification for the computational
science community is enormous. But as Victor alluded to in one of his
messages, it will likely be some time before today's traditional
journals take advantage of the technological possibilities.

Now if you're not a fan of swf's, ponder the following. Adobe are already 
able to run a luatex interpreter using swf's virutal machine, using a C to 
ActionScript cross-compiler, and pdftex is written in C and is migrating 
to using luatex. Thus in principle one could imagine running TeX directly 
inside of a PDF document. Yes, I'm aware of all the niggly details that 
would need to be sorted out, to allow this to happen. But conceptually, 
all the pieces are falling into place. And as a half-way house, it would 
not be too difficult to get a subset of MetaPost up an running, which 
would be useful in its own right.

Just a thought, or two.

James