[pdftex] Another request for an enhancement to pdf(La)TeX

[André Wobst]

Hi James,

Am 26.10.2010 um 12:40 schrieb James Quirk:
>> Do I get any support for this feature request?
> I can see where you are coming from with your request. For large PDF 
> files, however, one would generally like to take advantage of compressed 
> object streams. Now I haven't had the chance to delve into the source 
> to see how said streams are generated by pdftex, but I can imagine
> how they complicate the general solution to your request.


This is a valid question, but it does not complicate the issue at all. The stream length (with its seeking at the moment) and the compression are clearly separate. I should also add that other PDF generators do use the described solution to generate the PDF output without seeking while not knowing the size of the streams in advance. To my understanding, it should be fairly possible to do the same in pdfTeX, though it is a change in the pdfTeX source. (I do not know whether an additional object will break some internal object counting, though.) Anyway, to come back to your comment: Moving the size of a stream in a separate object does not harm the compression of the streams at all.

André

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