Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 19:29:47 +0100 (BST) From: Andrew Gordon <arg@arg1.demon.co.uk> Cc: Simon Shapiro <Shimon@i-Connect.Net>, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How do I read RTF files? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.971016192120.21714A-100000@server.arg.sj.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971016094840.8498C-100000@jandrese.async.vt.edu>
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On Thu, 16 Oct 1997, Jason Andresen wrote: > On Thu, 16 Oct 1997, Jim Bryant wrote: > > ~~In reply: > ~~> Sorry if this the wrong place. > ~~> > ~~> I forgot how to do that :-( > ~~> > ~~> Used to have (on Linux?) an acrobat reader (or maybe two?) . Anything for > ~~> us here? > ~~ > ~~acrobat is pdf format... it is different. > ~~ > ~~emacs supports RTF, but i'm not sure to what extent, as have only > ~~played with it twice in that mode. > ~~ > Apparently StarWriter supports RTF, however, I have never tested it. StarWriter does appear to do a reasonable job. However, the short answer is that there is _no_ product on _any_ platform that does a reliable job of rendering RTF. RTF is not compatible even between minor revisions of the same Microsoft product. A year or two ago, ISO/IEC decreed that certain committees should exchange committee documents (draft standards etc). in RTF format (to add insult to injury, one of the committees concerned is that responsible for SGML). This has been a complete disaster: sometimes the documents are completely unreadable, but more often a much more insidious corruption occurs, deleting paragraphs or sentences and leaving the document otherwise readable. PDF is much better.
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