[Scribus] PDF-related development

[Craig Ringer]

Asif Lodhi wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Can you guys give me URLs of some very good PDF-related online
>development resources (of course, free online resources!)?
>
http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/pdf/index_reference.html

>Further, I have Fedora Core 3.  If I do start working on the project
>in context, can I think about porting the stuff to Mac _without_
>having Mac?  I mean, can I hope to write portable code in Qt that
>compiles without a hitch on Mac and generates _no_ errors?
>  
>
I suspect anything from Qt or POSIX is OK. Anything else will require 
careful checking. Note that there are significant behaviour differences 
between Qt/X11 and Qt/Mac in some areas, possibly imposed by choices in 
Mac OS X . One of the areas this shows up in is window focus; others may 
also exist. Andreas will know more.

If you're targeting Qt/X11 on Fink, rather than native Qt/Mac, it's 
easier, but Apple has done their best to ensure X11 is a clunky second 
class citizen on Mac OS X so Mac users will understandably complain.

You might also be interested to know that Sourceforge.net runs Mac OS X 
server systems in its compile farm. These are available for access by 
developers on sf.net . While Mac OS X Server is certainly not the same 
beast as Mac OS X, it's similar enough that doing builds on it might 
well help you make sure your code at least compiles on Mac OS X. If only 
Apple provided a cross-compile environment :S . I haven't used this 
build farm service myself, so all  I can do is point it out as possibly 
useful.

>My focus area is reading of encrypted PDFs but with stronger
>encryption.  As I already know that XPDF already supports this.  But,
>do you think making the encryption _stronger_ is not going to make any
>difference to the functional aspects - rendering, etc.?
>  
>
In what sense do you want to make the encryption stronger? With what 
goals? What's the problem you're trying to address with this stronger 
encryption? (Security is about a LOT more than algorithmic crypto strength).

--
Craig Ringer