Re: HELMETS!!!

norman@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Norman Wilson) writes:

> Bill Z. <nobody@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
> >There is an RFC describing the PDF format.  Adobe is going around
> >modifying it for business reasons, and those changes are not in
> >the standard.   Is it any surprise that something doesn't work
> >when you aren't using Adobe products?
> 
> Can you cite the RFC number?  The nearest I can find is RFC
> 3778, which is by no means a full description of the format;
> rather it offers a few notes on usage and a pointer to the
> separately-published (by Adobe, not by the IETF) PDF Reference
> Manuals.

That's the one - but keep in mind the title: "The application/pdf
Media Type", and that it states

        This do***ent is intended to provide updated information on
        the registration of the MIME Media Type "application/pdf",
        with particular focus on the features that help mitigate
        security concerns.  This do***ent refers to features
        do***ented in the PDF References versions 1 [1], 1.3 [2], 1.4
        [3] and 1.5 [4], as updated by errata [5].

where the citations are to specific do***ents published by Adobe.
They just didn't go to the trouble of copying the existing Adobe
do***ents into the RFC verbatim - a waste of effort.

You can't expect software developers to figure out what to do with
a MIME type of the specification of that type can be changed at
will without updating the specification for what that MIME type
represents.

Sherman was complaining about what my software was doing - and that
software apparently worked correctly - it found an application that
could handle the MIME type defined in RFC 3778.  It's just that the
do***ent format  did not match the MIME type.

-- 
My real name backwards: nemuaZ lliB