

Sun Releases Open-Source PDF Renderer - hhm
http://www.infoq.com/news/2007/12/sun-releases-lgpl-pdf-renderer

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jey
Too bad it's implemented in Java. If this was in C it would make the GNU PDF
project redundant.

~~~
bootload
_"... Too bad it's implemented in Java. If this was in C it would make the GNU
PDF project redundant ..."_

My sentiments ( _had a similiar post before I scrubbed it_ ). What is it about
the language that leaves a sour taste for developers?

    
    
        Is it the inability to integrate into gnu software as 
        easily as C that makes it just another attempt 
        to push their own language?
    

Is the advantage of not dealing with pointers worth the cost of dealing with
JVM? Maybe it's a developer thing? I imagine 9/10 users wouldn't bat an eyelid
if told it was developed in _"foo"_ language.

~~~
jey
Well, if it's written in C, it can be used pretty much anywhere and linked to
from pretty much anything. Yes, the code needs to be written portably, but
that's a solved problem.

In addition to that, the FSF has some weird religious adherence to C that goes
beyond linkability. e.g. they're opposed to libraries being written in highly
portable C++ which export their bindings in pure C, even if you only used
features supported by Cfront in 1990.

