On Wed 10 Jan 2018 at 09:02:08 +0000, Curt wrote: > On 2018-01-09, David Wright <[email protected]> wrote:
[...] > > And that's without discussing whether having to install a TeX system > > is any better than installing LibreOffice. > > Yes, I know, you're all flying to the moon in 1969 and must fit > everything into a kilobyte or two. > > But I did foresee this objection with my Gorilla-microbe metaphor, > although I needn't have done so as I was not the one to make the original > suggestion of latex for the production of pdfs in the first place. Given a willingness to devote the necessary resources to the task, a decent case can be made for using unoconv to convert text (and other document types) to PDF. The method relies on starting unoconv as a listener in the background (unconv -l &). X is not required. Quite a sophistcated conversion engine can be constructed; text, MS Word, ODT. RTF etc to PDF. Printing to a real printer or to file can also be built into the system. I sometimes wonder whether this is used as the basis for some of the online conversion services. Simplicity, txt2pdf et al, can be an advantage but having multiple methods at hand cannot be bad. -- Brian.
