PDF (was publication of IASS papers on CDROM)

[Kengo Harimoto]

Hello List,

Thanks for some advice to my previous post on and off the list, I
could solve some problems.

In order to view and print pdf files produced through dvi -> ps -> pdf
properly, I needed acrobat reader 4.0.  Apparently, the rendering of
bitmap fonts in the newer reader is much better.  It renders bitmap
fonts in the document properly with anti-aliasing.

However, I suspect that it still has a limitation of originally
intended printer resolution in the dvi file.  If one happens to have a
2000dpi printer and the document was originally created with 600dpi
bitmaps, the quality of the output won't be as nice as using outline
fonts, I suppose.

In addition, the searching the pdf file produced through TeX/LaTeX
still does not work.

If my points were not clear in my broken English, they were that:

1) I agree that pdf is so far the best solution to distribute a
document electronically.

2) but the pdf files, produced from a document that are originally
written in TeX/LaTeX, are not the same as the pdf files produced from
Adobe's solution.

3) and TeX/LaTeX happen to be rather popular among indologists.

It was not difficult for me to find and install the newer versions of
softwares---in this case, Acrobat Reader 4.0.5 and Ghostscript 6.0.1.
(Thanks again, for advice.)  But there are tons of people who are
using antiquated software and have trouble finding and installing
newer versions.  [I am also sick and tired of following the most
recent development.]  The speed of advancement in the area of
computer/digital/IT industry is astonishing, but it seems to me that
the area is not still mature, hence rapid change.  Things will change
in the near future, and it is highly likely that there will be a
better solution to publish indological publications.  I thought CD-ROM
was cool 8 or 9 years ago.  But it is already losing the luster behind
DVD-ROM/RAM or the web.  Publishing on the web or CD-ROM may be
fashionable these days, but I think anything fashionable will be out
of fashion soon or later.

- Regarding the storage device, I thought we were discussing about the
medium to distribute a document.  I have no doubt that the original
data of a publication published electronically will be stored in one
shape or another electronically.  But if the publication was published
in the shape of physical media, such as CD-ROM, I'd still think that
the readability on the desktop will significantly reduce in 10 or so
years.  DVD-ROM/RAM drives may still support the CD-ROM, but what
about the next generation?  33 rpm vinyl record format is a norm but
very few people these days have record players.

Gunthard Mueller <gm at ANTHOSIMPRINT.COM> wrote:

> Further, MacOS HFS has ALREADY been superseded by TWO other MacOS
> file systems, and the issue has nothing to do with the ISO-9660
> issue. MacOS HFS could easily be superseded because it is not an ISO
> norm and not accepted by other platforms. So superseding it was an
> Apple-internal decision and therefore bound to happen for ephemeral
> reasons.  Things are different when norming has taken place.
> ISO-9660 is itself a file system and has nothing to do with a single
> company or lobby. Is is the normed file system for CD-ROMs. As such
> it will be readable in future.

Although I have to admit that I am shaky on this ground, I am aware
that Apple now has two newer file systems.  (That's why I mentioned
the possibility of future non-support of HFS.)  But my understanding
of the ISO9660 and HFS was that HFS is _on_ ISO9660 on CD-ROM for
MacOS.  My point was that there would be a danger of a cd-rom unable
to be read properly on future systems, if it employed a OS specific
file system on a CD-ROM, which is in ISO9660 format to be a cd-rom.
For example, a mac cd-rom is mounted on my linux system as iso9660
file system.  But the cd-rom looks like regular HFS volume from MacOS.
Don't many cd-roms have both msdos and HFS volumes over ISO9660
(hybrid cd-rom)?  If a book is published in such a hybrid format, when
Apple disappears or Apple decides to abandon supporting ancient HFS
format, the purchasers of the cd-rom may not be able to read the
contents in the future.  [Perhaps this does not happen.  An CD-ROM
witl an HFS volume will be mounted in the same manner the MacOS mounts
UNIX cd-roms as ISO9660.]

[So, if some one goes for electronic publication, better solution for
electronic publications may be, cough, web-based, like UMI.
User/reader/purchaser do not have to worry about longevity of the
media [s]he purchased.]

- Regarding TeX/LaTeX and SGML/XML, unicode, etc.  TeX/LaTeX happens
to be the easiest and cheapest solution for many indologists. (And
probably most aesthetically pleasing output for most people, IMHO.)
It happens that XML applications for this field of study is not very
accessible for most people yet, and XML and unicode appear to be still
moving targets for me.  TeX/LaTeX may be dead already, and may belong
to gurus, but indologists are known to like dead languages :-) And
many indologists would like to be a guru, too :-)

So, we still have a time-honored means to publish, i.e., on the paper,
which happens to be readable by most people.  Perhaps it will be
readable in near future, too.  I know some people who still print out
their e-mails.  Although I think this practice and publication of
newspapers on the paper is a total waste of resources, there still are
people who like reading them in the bathroom or on the train.
Similarly, although I would not mind publishing electronically and
reading on screen, removing the option of publishing on the paper does
not seem a good idea yet.

--
kengo