[pdftex] [tex-live] PDF 1.5 by default in TL 2010

[Robin Fairbairns]

Elie Roux <elie.roux at telecom-bretagne.eu> wrote:

> Philip TAYLOR a écrit :
> > If
> > you can send me (off-list) a known PDF 1.5 file, I will
> > be more than happy to try to open it and to report
> > back the results.
> 
> I just tested, and it doesn't work.
> 
> > A very fair analysis.
> 
> I kind of disagree : this means that users won't see their TeX system
> improved because Phil Taylor has Acrobat 5.0 and doesn't want to
> change (even for a free software) because he has principles (that
> don't have anything to do with TeXLive)... doesn't sound like the
> 'very fair' definition to me ;-)

i have a machine at home that can boot into a system containing a very
old acrocrap reader.  this is convenient in some circumstances, for
testing (and it's much faster on that old machine than my desktop is on
a modern acrocrap).

however, i'm at liberty to do something else (as is phil).  the people
who one should be considering are not the phils and robins of this
world, but rather the people who download over a dial-up line, and
struggle with almost everything.

such people may very well install a new dvd, and then find they can't
read any of the docs on it, and can't reasonably download even a
freeware viewer.

should we worry about them?  should there be a freeware viewer in tl?

it's all rather tricky, if you ask me.  my general view, as when
jonathan fine and i argued the toss over the arrival of latex 2e[*], is
that better things sometimes cost, and the best we can do is ameliorate
the users' problems.

robin

[*] which took hours upon hours of work simply to build on his archaic
home machine at the time