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Isn't it depressing, that we live in 2023 and the predominant document format is pdf, which was invented in 1993 and is optimized for printing? I would love to

by tevlon 3y ago

Isn't it depressing, that we live in 2023 and the predominant document format is pdf, which was invented in 1993 and is optimized for printing? I would love to have a new format, which is easily parseable (like JSON) AND printable (like PDF).

boredemployee 3y ago
Create one for us :D
zmmmmm 3y ago
at least PDF occasionally contains actual text. My organisation systematically scans everything to TIFF images for archival. So now we are embarking on a major project to OCR the TIFFs to get back the text (!).
- UncleEntity 3y ago
  My payroll statement is the same, image wrapped in a pdf document. I’m not sure if they’re being intentionally annoying or if someone thought this was actually helpful for the thousands of independent contractors who track their expenses down to the penny?
- Baeocystin 3y ago
  Considering the data format hells I've had to deal with over the years, straightforward TIFF scans don't sound so bad, honestly.
therealmarv 3y ago
Asciidoc, HTMLbook, Docbook are the standards O'Reilly media using to create their books (and PDFs). No need to reinvent the wheel there.
mr_toad 3y ago
I thinks it’s depressing that we’re still thinking of content being containerised as if it still had to be bound in a physical volume instead of being addressable items of information, like a computer naturally stores information.
- vls-xy 3y ago
  I love this comment. It strikes at the heart of many things that I have been vocal about for decades at the same time I could take the devil's advocate approach to say: a computer naturally stores information on physical volumes, since these have different address spaces you will probably not get around this conundrum. However, fundamentally I completely agree with you. Information we seek should not be bound to the medium it is stored on in this day an age. I wish we could get out of the containerized knowledge but it seems to me we are creating ever more virtual containers in which information is stored. I for one only get a glimpse of the vast amounts of information TikTok is making available to it's users when it is posted on one of the few websites I visit. I guess the reason we still think of information being in books and on paper is because we are human and its hard to get rid of millennia of habits and institutions that have grown around us to accommodate for our limited ability to grasp the universe.

by tevlon 3y ago

boredemployee 3y ago

Create one for us :D

zmmmmm 3y ago

at least PDF occasionally contains actual text. My organisation systematically scans everything to TIFF images for archival. So now we are embarking on a major project to OCR the TIFFs to get back the text (!).

UncleEntity 3y ago
My payroll statement is the same, image wrapped in a pdf document. I’m not sure if they’re being intentionally annoying or if someone thought this was actually helpful for the thousands of independent contractors who track their expenses down to the penny?
Baeocystin 3y ago
Considering the data format hells I've had to deal with over the years, straightforward TIFF scans don't sound so bad, honestly.

therealmarv 3y ago

Asciidoc, HTMLbook, Docbook are the standards O'Reilly media using to create their books (and PDFs). No need to reinvent the wheel there.

mr_toad 3y ago

I thinks it’s depressing that we’re still thinking of content being containerised as if it still had to be bound in a physical volume instead of being addressable items of information, like a computer naturally stores information.

vls-xy 3y ago
I love this comment. It strikes at the heart of many things that I have been vocal about for decades at the same time I could take the devil's advocate approach to say: a computer naturally stores information on physical volumes, since these have different address spaces you will probably not get around this conundrum. However, fundamentally I completely agree with you. Information we seek should not be bound to the medium it is stored on in this day an age. I wish we could get out of the containerized knowledge but it seems to me we are creating ever more virtual containers in which information is stored. I for one only get a glimpse of the vast amounts of information TikTok is making available to it's users when it is posted on one of the few websites I visit. I guess the reason we still think of information being in books and on paper is because we are human and its hard to get rid of millennia of habits and institutions that have grown around us to accommodate for our limited ability to grasp the universe.