Revisiting inclusion of AcroTeX/eForms in TeX Live in light of advancements in libre PDF readers

[John Scott]

Hello,

I must disclaim that I've not used these packages yet and would welcome being informed if I'm mistaken.

It looks like both TeX Live and Debian have had reservations about shipping AcroTeX and eForms because at the time it was considered, the only PDF readers that appeared to support the features were proprietary ones. However, it seems that free PDF viewers have made great strides in the past several years especially in supporting these advanced features, so I think their inclusion in the standard distribution should be reconsidered.

Free PDF viewers, especially Okular with the Poppler backend, have gained support for many of the features that have been standardized, including non-XFA forms, digital/cryptographic signature support, and JavaScript, all things that eForms appears to assist in making. There are probably still some things that AcroTeX and eForms can do that only proprietary readers support, but unless software patents muddy the waters, it seems like this can improve in client software at any time.

Frankly I'm itching to use this functionality in my documents, but as a strong advocate for free software as well, I'd like to be informed if there are any freedom or distribution issues remaining.

Thanks,
John

P.S. I'm having trouble subscribing, so please CC me on replies.

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