3 ms·

PostScript at least has the excuse that it _is_ a programming language (for assembling documents for printing, but still a proper programming language) while PD

PostScript at least has the excuse that it _is_ a programming language (for assembling documents for printing, but still a proper programming language) while PDF is supposed to be a fixed document format. PDF has far too much power for what it is supposed to do. Microsoft got it right with (O)XPS -- none of that dynamic stuff that lets you do all kinds of naughty things to the system with a properly formed document like PDF can do.

tinus_hn 8y ago
That of course depends on what you think it’s supposed to do. PDF is not just a representation of paper, you can for instance also build forms. It would be nice if there was a separate ‘static paper’ only extension/mime type but there isn’t.
jlgaddis 8y ago
> Microsoft got it right with (O)XPS -- none of that dynamic stuff that lets you do all kinds of naughty things to the system with a properly formed document like PDF can do. On the other hand, they also get it wrong with other things and we end up with SYSTEM-level compromises due to a vulnerability in a font!