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

[Hartmut Henkel]

On Tue, 26 Oct 2010, Martin Schröder wrote:
> 2010/10/26 André Wobst <lists at wobsta.de>:
> > It would be nice to have a streamable TeX processor (input and
> > output both being streams).
>
> Note that PDF as is is not meant to be streamed; even linearized PDF
> technically doesn't really allow appending content to a finished PDF.

why? at least for non-linearized PDF (as produced by pdftex & luatex)
just append another xref and trailer referencing existing and new
objects to the PDF file.

> So really getting streamable PDF would probably not work with Adobe
> Reader but need a special viewer.

a reader may not gain much from streaming (it would need to read the
entire PDF file in before working with it). Still, producing a streamed
PDF (e. g., in a pipe) would be a nice, desirable feature.

Regards, Hartmut