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

[Hartmut Henkel]

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010, Martin Schröder wrote:

> 2010/10/27 Hartmut Henkel <hartmut_henkel at gmx.de>:
> > 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.
>
> But how do you get the reader to read the new portions of the file?

it starts from the new file end, should then find the new xref and new
trailer dict, new catalog...

> And to keep the objects without new versions and replace the objects
> which have new versions?

Not replace, just let them dangling, the old trailer should also be
ignored (well, never tried), inefficient but ok.

Regards, Hartmut