Re: [Lynx-dev] Displaying a pdf live on the Fly?

[Mouse]

>> Hi All: I am realizing it would be easier to have lynx display pdfs
>> basicly like any other texts.

This would be difficult; a few PDFs aren't text at all, and many more
aren't just text.  How much you lose by keeping just the text can be
anything on the spectrum from nothing to everything.

>> Anyway we tried modifying my dot mailcap file, like this
>> application/pdf; less "%s"
>> Well, lynx said it may be a binary, see it anyway?  It was a mess.

Yes.  Most PDFs in my experience have most of their data compressed, so
they are "binary junk" when looked at with tools that don't understand
PDF structure and the compression method(s) in question.

>> So can [someone] please inform an easy way of doing this, or would I
>> need an external?

In full generality, there is no easy way.  You will need _something_
that understands the strtucture of PDFs.  Even for just a "most cases"
converter, you probably will need something that knows enough about PDF
structure to decompress compressed content.

There is a package, xpdf, which I picked up a decade ago from
ftp.foolabs.com (I don't know whether it's available anywhere these
days; I can make what I have available if it would help); it includes a
PDF-to-text converter which works well enough to be useful in some
cases for me.  There may well be something better knocking around by
now; this is just the one I happen to know of.

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