Ted,

Now now...

>>Of course, on my Mac, I can save anything to PDF. It's built in.

Linux, too, of course. It's too bad the Microsoft chooses to distance

itself so far behind the other systems...<<

We all know that if MS were to make generating a PDF file a native part

of the OS, then everyone who writes these add on tools would complain

that the nasty MS monopoly is destroying their livelihood on a whim.

(Look at the media player developers, etc.)

The fact that MS hasn't done it doesn't mean that they don't want to do

so. It's just a matter of trying to decide which features are important

enough to add when they know that doing so will most likely result in

more (or support existing) litigation.

Gee, either they (MS) are:

evil because they are now giving away the software that someone sells

for a living - that's anti competitive

- or -

evil because they won't give away software for free (who cares about

those whining developers - make my life easier)

Which way do you want it today?

Take care,

Fletcher

-----Original Message-----

From: profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com [mailto:profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com]

On Behalf Of Ted Roche

Sent: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 1:03 PM

To: profoxtech@leafe.com

Subject: Re: Major PDF article by Lisa Slater Nicholls

On Jun 1, 2005, at 2:57 PM, David Stevenson wrote:

> Apparently, the reasons many VFP developers do not use GhostScript

> have to

> do with either confusion about licensing requirements or

> difficulties in

> getting it easily and reliably installed without user intervention.

I was not aware of the alternative GPL and/or GNU distributions, and

had reviewed the Aladdin license and then purchased commercial

licenses. I do support a number of clients with PDF output options,

mostly using PDF995 and pdfFactory. For the expense involved, the

added benefits of the installer and printer driver technology were

worth the costs to my clients. However, I'll have to review LSN's

articles - a brief skim shows some brilliant ideas, as usual.

Of course, on my Mac, I can save anything to PDF. It's built in.

Linux, too, of course. It's too bad the Microsoft chooses to distance

itself so far behind the other systems...

[excessive quoting removed by server]