pdf's of Acts

[David Swarbrick]

> > > The layout of documents contains information that can be 
important and
> > > I would not want a format used that discards this.
> 
> > HTML does not discard the layout.
> 
> HTML does not preserve the original layout of a document whereas PDF 
does
> (at least to the best of its ability).
> 
> > However, it does not slavishly try and keep the layout precisely 
the same
> > on every output device
> 
> Which is exactly the point.  And the changes are not necessarily 
small.
> They can even result in the loss of text if the html is poorly 
written and
> is rendered in an environment that the original authors did not 
anticipate.

The point is that if you think th enative format for a piece is paper, 
then .pdf is fine. In whucxh case keep it off the web!

It was fundamental to the design of the web that the viewer says how he 
wants to look at something. It is a shift in perspective, a 
democratisation. The publisher is meant to lose control. That is why 
pdf is a curse on the web. It sets out to contradict its own context.

It is unreliable. Over the years, I have usuallty (but not always) 
managed to get acrobat reader working on a machine. I always wonder why 
I should have load this load of nonsense, just because somebody else 
wants to control how I see what they produce. Inded usually it is used 
by those who do not want to take the trouble to make the shift in 
thinking to a web based document. They still think  the net is an 
unfortunate interloper in the distribution of paper.

I have to use pdfs becausee some of the documents I ned to use are 
prepared in pdf. Almost universally this is for the convenience of 
someone else, not me. Regularly there are difficulties and 
inconsistencies. 

I have to use some Capital Taxes Office pdfs. They look lovely. They 
are a complete bastard to fill in on screen because they do not do what 
they say they will.

Other Stamp Office pdfs are simple images of a document stuffed inside 
a pdf. They are awful.

Sometimes pdfs open in Explorer but not Netscape and vice versa. 
Sometimes they are searchable and sometimes they are not.

Thinking about it brings back years of frustration  at the damn things. 
I thought I had got over it (I learned the right click/save as trick). 
Why should I have to. With very, very few exceptions (ie none that I 
can think of) I cannot remember a document which would not have been 
better in html. Yes, so you lose some of te control freakery of the 
author, but I would not miss it.

-- 
David Swarbrıck  david@swarb.freeuk.com
david.swarbrick@lawindexpro.co.uk