Convert INF to PDF

[Martin Iturbide]

Hi

I want to recover all the OS/2 Toolkit documents for EDM/2, since the links to "http://cyberkinetica.homeunix.net" are now dead.

So, I want to ask permission to IBM to republish, but first I need to convert INF files to PDF format, because nobody can read INF file (with the exception of us). Plus I think that PDF will be a better format to put on the web since it can be indexed by search engines, etc.

What do you recommend me to convert the INF OS/2 Toolkit documents to PDF? or does someone has already converted (maybe I missed that)?

I tried INF2HTML which is good, but I need to go to the next step and convert it to PDF.

Regards

[Dave Yeo]

if you've already converted to HTML, just load it in Firefox and print it to a PDF. (print to file with a PDF extension).
The INF format is being used more and more in the open source world with the preferred viewer being DocView,  part of free pascal. http://sourceforge.net/projects/fpgui/files/fpGUI/1.2/

[Andy Willis]

If you have HTML, why not use it instead of PDF?  I personally would have HTML on the web and the INF for download.

[muffetta]

Hi

I want to recover all the OS/2 Toolkit documents for EDM/2, since the links to "http://cyberkinetica.homeunix.net" are now dead.

So, I want to ask permission to IBM to republish, but first I need to convert INF files to PDF format, because nobody can read INF file (with the exception of us). Plus I think that PDF will be a better format to put on the web since it can be indexed by search engines, etc.

What do you recommend me to convert the INF OS/2 Toolkit documents to PDF? or does someone has already converted (maybe I missed that)?

I tried INF2HTML which is good, but I need to go to the next step and convert it to PDF.

Regards

I proposed the same weeks ago...but surely we need IBM permission.

If you have HTML, why not use it instead of PDF?  I personally would have HTML on the web and the INF for download.

Why could not provide both html/pdf, just like The VOICE Newsletter (html/inf)? About, we could also resurrect something similar.

if you've already converted to HTML, just load it in Firefox and print it to a PDF....

Yes, this a right way, Dave. Last year i made vx-rexx programming guide tutorial exporting inf/hlp from NewView into .ipf, then, using VyperHelp (or Hiperwise), converted ipf to html, and at the end, made a pdf using htmldoc and htmltopdf.

[Martin Iturbide]

If you have HTML, why not use it instead of PDF?  I personally would have HTML on the web and the INF for download.

Hi Andi. 

I prefer to send the IBM lawyers a pack of PDF files. If I send them some HTML files it may get stuck there, since they will need to unzip it, find the index.html, and open it from there.  On this case I prefer PDF.

After the approval is does not matter if I post it on HTML or PDF.

Regards

[Martin Iturbide]

if you've already converted to HTML, just load it in Firefox and print it to a PDF. (print to file with a PDF extension).
The INF format is being used more and more in the open source world with the preferred viewer being DocView,  part of free pascal. http://sourceforge.net/projects/fpgui/files/fpGUI/1.2/

Ohh, I didn't know of that projects. It is very interesting.

[Paul Smedley]

Hi

I want to recover all the OS/2 Toolkit documents for EDM/2, since the links to "http://cyberkinetica.homeunix.net" are now dead.

So, I want to ask permission to IBM to republish, but first I need to convert INF files to PDF format, because nobody can read INF file (with the exception of us). Plus I think that PDF will be a better format to put on the web since it can be indexed by search engines, etc.

What do you recommend me to convert the INF OS/2 Toolkit documents to PDF? or does someone has already converted (maybe I missed that)?

I tried INF2HTML which is good, but I need to go to the next step and convert it to PDF.

Regards

Does http://www.warpspeed.com.au/book/books.htm offer the same information that was at http://cyberkinetica.homeunix.net ?

Cheers,

Paul

[nickl]

Hi All.

Just saw your note. Whenever possible I used to download all of the old Voice Magazines in *.INF format. I have a version of PMPDF that works for me, so I simply grabbed a magazine and printed it to a file which I have attached. It seems you can read it, but some of the links don't work. Hopefully this will be fit for your purpose. Regards. NICK

[Martin Iturbide]

Does http://www.warpspeed.com.au/book/books.htm offer the same information that was at http://cyberkinetica.homeunix.net ?

There seems to be all dead links to the book.

Regards

[Alex Taylor]

Simplest way is to use NewView to print the file to a Postscript printer on FILE: and then convert the output PS file to PDF (which is quite easy with Ghostscript).

Or even just print straight to an ePDF or PMPDF printer object.

If it makes use of split windows then obviously you'll lose that aspect of the layout, but it will still come out pretty readable in my experience (I just tested here with my VROBJEX documentation).

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks.

The best way seems to be installing ghostscript and PMPDF (or ePDF) and send it to print all from NewView.

It seems to produce a decent enough PDF. I will generate them all and ask for permission.

When I got the permission I will see where to post them.

Regards.

[Martin Iturbide]

uhm... the only one that gave me trouble was "ipfref.inf". If I print it with NewView, it crash. Then the PDF save as dialog show ups, but only generate the PDF to page 48 (Changing Fonts).

The rest is worked fine.

Regards.

[Alex Taylor]

I see that too, also with the C Library Reference.

BTW on further investigation I've noted one serious shortcoming to generating PDFs this way: NewView (or probably more accurately Sibyl) rasterizes all the text to bitmaps when generating the Postscript, which means (a) the output files are huge, (b) the text looks kind of ugly, and (c) searching for text is impossible.

One alternative is to use IBM View (ibmview.exe on eCS) to print... this avoids the above problem, but is only capable of printing the text in monospaced font (specifically Courier).

In both cases, support for bookmarks/PDF table of contents is unavailable.