[Tioga-news] Scope of PDF Features

[Bill Paxton]

On Jul 25, 2006, at 7:20 AM, Scott Henderson wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am considering Ruby (RoR) for an upcoming project.  This
> environment will be completely new to me, as my experience is in
> procedural programming.  Thus, I am trying to access the lay of the
> land before embarking forward into Ruby Land.
>
> I would like to have complete flexibility in creating (new) or
> modifying (existing) PDF documents.  This would include inserting or
> overlaying database values.  It would also include converting
> Microsoft Word documents into PDF's (with inserted db values).
>
> Is this something Tioga can provide?  Will I have a visual interface
> to Tioga (Mac OS X) that provides a flexible environment with which
> to create and debug my intended PDF handling?
>
> Appreciate any information along these lines.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Scott Henderson

Hi Scott,

Tioga is focused on figures and plots rather than entire documents.   
It uses PDF for the graphics and TeX for the text, and in that  
context provides fairly complete access to PDF functionality.  But  
for documents, you need something else.

If you go to RubyForge (http://rubyforge.org/) and enter 'pdf' in the  
search field at the top of the page, you'll get a set of projects to  
check.  I haven't used it myself, but I think "Ruby PDF Tools" might  
provide what you're after.  There are also several others that are  
specific to RoR, so you might want to look at them as well.

Best wishes,

Bill Paxton