Postby brettz9 » Tue May 18, 2010 1:56 am
I sometimes get browser crashes loading PDF files, so I can't really test well. I think the standard object tag is better, though there could also be the option to put the embed tag inside the object tag in case the object tag is not supported (though I'm not sure it is worth doing this since 1) most browsers probably support object by now, and 2) if you want to be picky (as maybe some mobile devices also are?), it is indeed not standard).
But beyond this, I hope we do away with PDF pretty much altogether. It always slows the browser down in loading, it is slow when I have used it for searching, it is not as readily searchable, pastable, or accessible, including to open source processing tools (e.g., a regular expressions search bar), it is more awkward for pasting, etc. It is mostly redundant with HTML esp. as formatting options improve on the web, and I would prefer it be wholly abandoned, except for perhaps dump directories which we have not had time to convert the files to text or possibly for certain files using graphics which are not easily exportable into HTML + images (though I know at least in some cases a good converter program can do the same).
Although PDF has become an open standard, it introduces additional security challenges, has fewer options as far as readers, as I mentioned it can cause crashes, and I just don't feel it adds anything to the experience of being able to navigate files on the web. If someone wants to add PDFs available for download, since some people seem to prefer PDFs for printing, I think we could add it as a link, but to me, when I see a PDF file, it just means it is an article I will most likely not be reading unless there is a very compelling reason (and in any case, it is always a disappointing moment for me to find such an article).
Of course, I can appreciate the argument that with a lack of time it may be better to have something up than nothing, but if done as a link instead (which is less likely to cause crashes), I think even this argument could be overcome.
Sorry, PDFs are just a big pet peeve for me, even more than Word files which can at least be readily saved into textual HTML, even if the markup there is completely bloated and ugly...
Brett
