[Tfug] Scripting PDF's

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Robert,

On 7/9/2013 9:00 PM, Robert Hunter wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 7:20 PM, Bexley Hall <bexley401 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> What I'm trying to do is find a "document format" (e.g., PDF in
>> this case) that lets me create "active" documents that aren't
>> restricted to "static text and graphics".
>
> Let me get this straight.  You want to create an AI tutor with highly
> interactive mind-blowing audio visual gidga-ma-gadgets, and deliver it in a
> format that anyone can use?  World. Wide. Web.

Has to fit in a *single* file.  Has to reproduce *as* I intend it.
I.e., no worries that things won't "layout" properly; that a particular
font will be present on the user's system (I intentionally embed
all the special fonts that I use *in* my PDF's).  And I have to *know*
that every user's "browser"/viewer will have all the right "plugins"
to support the encodings that the document uses.

E.g., I can't (by choice) view SWF's in my browser.  No Flash installed, 
here.  (I'm not keen on YouTube and other "advertisements")

Can you rely on every browser to have a media player app installed
alongside the browser with the right mime types mapped to that player
so that it could "play" the audio snippets in my speech synthesizer
document?  Can you rely on Java being enabled in every browser?

I.e., PDF's work -- assuming you are using Adobe's product -- because
I only use capabilities that the PDF *reader* provides; no reliance on
"add-ons".  (hence my initial question regarding third party readers
and their support for some of these more "esoteric" capabilities in
PDF's)  The only "requirement" I have to convey to the user is
"must be viewed with Adobe Reader 9 or later".

--don