4 ms·

The Art of the Interpreter -- Steele and Sussman [pdf]

15 points by johnm 18y ago

soundsop 18y ago
This is the sort of ugly typesetting that spurred Knuth to create TeX.
- johnm 18y ago
  :-)
- cheponis 18y ago
  Is this your opinion, or do you have evidence of this (for example, have you asked DK about this?)?
  - soundsop 18y ago
    I believe I read it in an interview.
mroman 18y ago
Is it just me or is that "ipaper" an absolute POS? Could not print, bookmark, select text . . . what is that good for? I mean seriously, someone please enlighten me.
- ed 18y ago
  Hi mroman, I'm a developer over at Scribd and happen to work on iPaper. Although Adobe-style bookmarking has not been implemented (PDF's intradocument links work just fine), the inability to select text in this document is not an iPaper limitation. It just so happens that this PDF contains no text data, just hi-res raster versions of each page. As for printing, I was able to print just fine in FF on a PC (once the 10+ MB file had finished downloading). Would you mind emailing me at the address in my profile with your environment info so we can try to replicate your issue? Thanks!! Ed
  - mroman 18y ago
    Hi Ed, I just emailed you my environment info. I was referring to bookmarking the page in my browser favorites. Right. No text data. Personally, I find a text version of a document to be indispensable. I actually waited for the download to complete, and was still unable to print. First time I have ever had that problem. What would be wrong with ditching iPaper altogether? Personally, I would convert the document to HTML, and provide links to download or view both the .pdf version as well as a plain vanilla text version. That is just me though. I do appreciate your post however. Maurice
    - chrisbroadfoot 18y ago
      To convert the document to HTML, you'd need to do OCR, and then some more formatting...
      - mroman 18y ago
        I don't doubt it . . .
- johnm 18y ago
  I submitted the raw link but HN hacked it.
- cheponis 18y ago
  I use this: http://www.pdf995.com/ http://www.pdf995.com/ Lets me "print" a PDF to a file - and that's how I converted it to something I can save on my HD and read at my leisure when I'm not online, e.g. when I'm on a plane trip. This "solution" would not be necessary, however, if scribd and ipaper would go away and never cause any more pain on this planet. I despise ipaper. What were they thinking?
anupamkapoor 18y ago
i like the joke: Guy Lewis Stelle Jr. - NSF Fellow Gerald Jay Sussman - Jolly Good Fellow

15 points by johnm 18y ago

soundsop 18y ago

This is the sort of ugly typesetting that spurred Knuth to create TeX.

johnm 18y ago
:-)
cheponis 18y ago
Is this your opinion, or do you have evidence of this (for example, have you asked DK about this?)?
- soundsop 18y ago
  I believe I read it in an interview.

mroman 18y ago

Is it just me or is that "ipaper" an absolute POS? Could not print, bookmark, select text . . . what is that good for? I mean seriously, someone please enlighten me.

ed 18y ago
Hi mroman, I'm a developer over at Scribd and happen to work on iPaper. Although Adobe-style bookmarking has not been implemented (PDF's intradocument links work just fine), the inability to select text in this document is not an iPaper limitation. It just so happens that this PDF contains no text data, just hi-res raster versions of each page. As for printing, I was able to print just fine in FF on a PC (once the 10+ MB file had finished downloading). Would you mind emailing me at the address in my profile with your environment info so we can try to replicate your issue? Thanks!! Ed
- mroman 18y ago
  Hi Ed, I just emailed you my environment info. I was referring to bookmarking the page in my browser favorites. Right. No text data. Personally, I find a text version of a document to be indispensable. I actually waited for the download to complete, and was still unable to print. First time I have ever had that problem. What would be wrong with ditching iPaper altogether? Personally, I would convert the document to HTML, and provide links to download or view both the .pdf version as well as a plain vanilla text version. That is just me though. I do appreciate your post however. Maurice
  - chrisbroadfoot 18y ago
    To convert the document to HTML, you'd need to do OCR, and then some more formatting...
    - mroman 18y ago
      I don't doubt it . . .
johnm 18y ago
I submitted the raw link but HN hacked it.
cheponis 18y ago
I use this: http://www.pdf995.com/ http://www.pdf995.com/ Lets me "print" a PDF to a file - and that's how I converted it to something I can save on my HD and read at my leisure when I'm not online, e.g. when I'm on a plane trip. This "solution" would not be necessary, however, if scribd and ipaper would go away and never cause any more pain on this planet. I despise ipaper. What were they thinking?

anupamkapoor 18y ago

i like the joke: Guy Lewis Stelle Jr. - NSF Fellow Gerald Jay Sussman - Jolly Good Fellow