[sugar] Viewing PDFs from Browse

[Walter Bender]

Does it even make sense to make annotation tools for PDF as a general
concept? Why try to distort a proprietary, read-only data format into
something it isn't. Wouldn't we be better served by converting from
PDF to an open RW format when we save the files?

-walter

On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 10:11 AM, Eben Eliason <eben.eliason at gmail.com> wrote:
> The user couldn't annotate a file they don't "have".  Obviously we
> have to download the bits to a temporary location to view them, but in
> the normal paradigm of the web, nothing is permanently kept unless you
> explicitly download it.  Perhaps an attempt to navigate away from the
> page could ask if you wanted to keep it around or not, but I'd just as
> soon expose the keep button and have kids learn to keep only what they
> actually want.  Everything on the web is transient unless you grab
> something while you can.
>
> It doesn't really make sense to me to add annotation tools and such to
> the pdf viewer in Browse for this reason.  It should remain limited to
> handy viewing controls, saving the annotation tools for Read once the
> document is local, I feel. (As an analogy, you wouldn't expect to be
> able draw on top of or otherwise edit an image within Browse, right?
> You'd be able to zoom, pan, *maybe* rotate; but you'd download it and
> edit it in an activity designed for that purpose.)
>
> - Eben
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 6:21 AM, Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu at tomeuvizoso.net> wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 5:01 PM, Eben Eliason <eben.eliason at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 10:53 AM, Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu at tomeuvizoso.net> wrote:
>>>> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 4:46 PM, Eben Eliason <eben.eliason at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 4:24 AM, Tomeu Vizoso <tomeu at tomeuvizoso.net> wrote:
>>>>>> On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 1:40 AM, Eben Eliason <eben.eliason at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> Hey, this looks pretty cool, actually.  One powerful addition which I
>>>>>>> think is necessary in order to adopt this is the addition of a Keep
>>>>>>> button in that toolbar, by which one *could* download the pdf for
>>>>>>> offline reading later if wanted.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> In a similar vein, would it be possible to create a supplemental
>>>>>>> toolbar like this for other media types which browse specifically
>>>>>>> supports?  I could see having a similar UI for images, and a perhaps
>>>>>>> for audio and video, too.  The ability to view various formats
>>>>>>> directly, yet also have a one-click means to download the file, sounds
>>>>>>> promising.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hmm, shouldn't the act of viewing a PDF create an entry in the journal
>>>>>> that allows you to resume this act? If so, shouldn't the viewer plugin
>>>>>> create an entry in the journal by itself and that entry would contain
>>>>>> the PDF?
>>>>>
>>>>> Well, in this new model, I'd think not, actually.  I can view an image
>>>>> directly within Browse without creating a new Journal entry.
>>>>> Basically, anything Browse handles natively remains a part of my
>>>>> Browse session.  Anything which it cannot, or which I explicitly wish
>>>>> to keep for myself, becomes a new downloaded object.
>>>>
>>>> So Browse would create some kind of entry that would allow resuming
>>>> the reading of that book?
>>>
>>> Of course.  Basically, the following would happen:
>>>
>>> 1. Child clicks on a link to a pdf (or "natively supported media type")
>>> 2. Browse displays the pdf directly, with the contextual toolbar
>>> 3. Browse does not yet interact with the DS; this is just part of what it does
>>>
>>> (Stopping here would result in no Journal entry, apart from the Browse one)
>>
>> Not sure about it, if the user spent some good time reading (and
>> perhaps annotating) the PDF, shouldn't the journal record this in the
>> same way it tries to record all worthy interaction with the machine?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Tomeu
>>
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-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org