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Google Builds a Native PDF Reader Into Chrome
An anonymous reader writes "Google's latest Chrome 6 Developer Update comes with a few subtle GUI changes, but there is also a major update under the hood. As its ties with Adobe quite apparently grow stronger, there is not just an integrated Flash player, but also a native PDF reader in the latest version of Chrome 6. Google says the native reader will allow users to interact with PDF files just like they do with regular HTML pages. The reader is included in Chrome versions (Chromium) 6.0.437.1 and higher, and you can use the feature after you have enabled it manually in the plug-ins menu. That is, of course, if you can keep Chrome 6 alive — Windows users have reported frequent crashes, and Google has temporarily suspended the update progress to find out what is going on." The Register has some more details on the PDF plugin and a link to Google's blog post about it.
That Google wrote it and not Adobe. Adobe either doesn't hire qualified programmers or somehow manages to thwart any from getting work done properly. I'm not sure what exactly the problem is, whether there's too much interference from people without foundation or perhaps they just don't provide the resources to do it correctly in the first place.
> ...the fact that I'm using a web browser is kind of enough.
Real browsers can do more than "http://". "file://", for example. Or "ftp://". Or "gopher://".
But, alas, not archie://
Advice: on VPS providers
The wrench has been a universal configuration icon as long as we've had icons.
And it's been less usable this whole time than the menu. I never use the icon, only the menu...
Because it's faster for me to always go to the system standard menu location for application preferences for me to scan the whole toolbar to figure out where they put the wrench, and then additionally for my brain to process that whatever abstract shape the icon designer has chosen is in fact a wrench, and then to hover over the icon to verify (by waiting for the WORD to pop up so I can read it).
Id say it's rather a pathetic tool user who cannot read, given the human race moved out of caves and beyond simple images many thousands of years ago. Move back to ancient Egypt where you belong.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They can't accommodate you without leaving behind people who don't understand the need to upgrade. If a few 10s of megabytes are really critical to you, then you're very much an edge case.
As I said above, download the source and change it to meet your needs. Or pay someone to if you can't.