[pdftex] Section 7.6 of manual

[Paul Isambert]

Suresh Govindachar <sgovindachar at yahoo.com> a écrit:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> Section 7.6 of the pdfTeX manual describes \pdfobj and has the following
> line:
> 
>    > When <object type spec> is not given, 
>    > pdfTeX no longer creates a dictionary object 
>    > with contents <general text>, as it did in 
>    > the past.
> 
> Combining what else is written in that section with what is given in
> "General definitions and syntax rules" I concluded that \pdfobj must be
> followed by an absolute reference number or "stream" or "file" -- otherwise
> nothing would happen.  
> 
> However, as per the code indicated in my previous post (Subject: "RE:
> [pdftex] [Resolved] Getting started with JavaScript and pdftex") it is
> possible to write
> 
>     \pdfobj <general text>
> 
> which appears to contradict the quote above.  
> 
> So what exactly is being said by the line quoted above?

The important word is *dictionary*, which is a special data type in
PDF. What the quotation means is thus that an object is created, but
not a dictionary (if you want to create a dictionary, use "\pdfobj{<<material>>}"
instead of "\pdfobj{material}"). I suppose in previous versions PDFTeX
created dictionary automatically unless instructed otherwise.

Best,
Paul