PDF vs. .doc [was Re: Boston Linux Conference December 3-4 ]

[pll at lanminds.com]

In a message dated: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 09:19:14 EST
"Price, Erik" said:

>I wish I had more time to learn how to use these tools, they sound
>much more versatile than what MacOS X offers.  Still, it is very
>easy in MacOS X ... FWIU, the native display format for all documents
>is PDF so you when you choose to Print a file (from any application,
>not just "some applications that support this"), you can select
>"to PDF" and instead of going to the printer, the output gets saved
>as a PDF.
>
>Not as versatile, but easy....

This sounds similar to the 'Print to file' option honored by most 
apps under Windows/UNIX, the only real difference is that this option 
prints to a PS file, not a PDF.

Is this Mac OS X by chance?  I wonder if all they're doing is exactly 
the same as Windows/UNIX, printing to postscript, but then converting 
on the fly to PDF?  After all, OS X is BSD based, it would be trivial 
to implement this kind of thing using ghostscript.

If this is Mac OS X, you might want to get an xterm or shell window 
up and look for things like ps2pdf, pdf2ps, gs/ghostscript, etc.  It 
wouldn't suprise me at all if they're already available.
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
--
	It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing,
   but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away.

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