[tex-live] pretest: epstopdf overwrites existing files

[Angelo Graziosi]

Uwe Siart ha scritto:
> Angelo Graziosi  writes:
> 
>> In any case, it seems that it happens only with PDF files which are
>> older than EPS ones.
> 
> But I think it should not happen at all. The assumption behind this
> feature is that the PDFs are derivated from the EPSs. But this is not
> generally true.
> 
> Imagine an author who uses PDF graphics with transparency (a PDF 1.6
> feature) and EPS versions of the same but without transparency. It may
> further happen that this author received those files from a third person
> and is unable to recover those files (because he is not the creator of
> those graphics or because he lacks access to the creating software).
> 
> Now unsuspectingly he calls 'pdflatex' after a TL update and his
> transparent PDF graphics are lost forever. Ruined by a harmless latex
> run. TeX destructed the document sources. What a nightmare! Ok, he could
> have avoided this if only he knew about the new magic command. But how
> many users will fall into that trap during the first 2-3 years?
> 

I agree fully. Restoring the old behavior seems the wisest thing to do. 
Nor is it conceivable that one adds '\newcommand{\DoNotLoadEpstopdf}{}' 
in each document source. And for documents written in the past? No, the 
best thing is that each user convert its EPS file manually if one needs 
that!


Cheers,
Angelo.