[PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[David Edmondson]

Add editor role for PDF files, allowing them to be opened in Emacs via
the Finder.
---
 nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in | 12 ++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)

diff --git a/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in b/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
index f9f0ec0857..bd86a75e79 100644
--- a/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
+++ b/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
@@ -488,6 +488,18 @@ along with GNU Emacs.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
 			<string>Editor</string>
 		</dict>
+		<dict>
+			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
+			<array>
+				<string>pdf</string>
+			</array>
+			<key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
+			<string>document.icns</string>
+			<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
+			<string>PDF document</string>
+			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
+			<string>Editor</string>
+		</dict>
 		<dict>
 			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
 			<array>
-- 
2.30.1 (Apple Git-130)

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[Daniel Martín]

David Edmondson <dme@dme.org> writes:

> Add editor role for PDF files, allowing them to be opened in Emacs via
> the Finder.
> ---
>  nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in | 12 ++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in b/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
> index f9f0ec0857..bd86a75e79 100644
> --- a/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
> +++ b/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
> @@ -488,6 +488,18 @@ along with GNU Emacs.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
>  			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
>  			<string>Editor</string>
>  		</dict>
> +		<dict>
> +			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
> +			<array>
> +				<string>pdf</string>
> +			</array>
> +			<key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
> +			<string>document.icns</string>
> +			<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
> +			<string>PDF document</string>
> +			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
> +			<string>Editor</string>
> +		</dict>
>  		<dict>
>  			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
>  			<array>

Thanks for the patch, but by default Emacs opens PDF files in
fundamental-mode, which IMO is not very convenient for reading PDFs.
It's true that there's also doc-view-mode, but that requires some extra
configuration.

If someone has configured Emacs to be a good PDF viewer, they can always
force the Open With dialog to open PDFs with Emacs.

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[Stefan Monnier]

> Thanks for the patch, but by default Emacs opens PDF files in
> fundamental-mode,

It does?

> It's true that there's also doc-view-mode, but that requires some extra
> configuration.

It works out of the box for me with `emacs -Q`.


        Stefan

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[Stefan Kangas]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> Thanks for the patch, but by default Emacs opens PDF files in
>> fundamental-mode,
>
> It does?

I believe it depends on binaries (e.g. "gs") that are not available on
macOS by default, but the patch itself is macOS-specific.

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[Stefan Monnier]

Stefan Kangas [2021-11-19 04:42:30] wrote:
> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
>>> Thanks for the patch, but by default Emacs opens PDF files in
>>> fundamental-mode,
>> It does?
> I believe it depends on binaries (e.g. "gs") that are not available on
> macOS by default, but the patch itself is macOS-specific.

Ah, I see, makes sense.

Any chance we could change doc-view so it works without `gs` (nor
`mupdf`) using one of the tools pre-installed in macOS?


        Stefan

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[Stefan Kangas]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

> Any chance we could change doc-view so it works without `gs` (nor
> `mupdf`) using one of the tools pre-installed in macOS?

It seems like we could, from searching the web there's apparently a tool
called "sips" that is pre-installed on macOS.  I just checked my machine
and I have it there.

AFAICT, you can't convert only one page with it, only the full page.
But it seems to be a hard requirement of a
`doc-view-pdf->png-converter-function' that we can specify a page number
to it, so I'm not sure how tricky it is to fit into what we have now.

Maybe someone more familiar with doc-view could take a look.

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[Stefan Monnier]

Stefan Kangas [2021-11-20 04:55:17] wrote:

> Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
>
>> Any chance we could change doc-view so it works without `gs` (nor
>> `mupdf`) using one of the tools pre-installed in macOS?
>
> It seems like we could, from searching the web there's apparently a tool
> called "sips" that is pre-installed on macOS.  I just checked my machine
> and I have it there.
>
> AFAICT, you can't convert only one page with it, only the full page.
> But it seems to be a hard requirement of a
> `doc-view-pdf->png-converter-function' that we can specify a page number
> to it, so I'm not sure how tricky it is to fit into what we have now.
>
> Maybe someone more familiar with doc-view could take a look.

Apparently it might also be possible to do it via AppleScript
(according to http://preserve.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.21/21.03/BasicImageManipulation/index.html)

But both of those seem to focus on image manipulation and completely
skip describing the case of a PDF (or GIF, ...) that contains several
images/pages.
So yes, it might be doable but someone will have to play with
it to see exactly what can be done.

If it can only convert a whole document at a time, I think doc-view
could be adapted to accommodate that requirement.


        Stefan

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[Alan Third]

On Sat, Nov 20, 2021 at 08:06:20AM -0500, Stefan Monnier wrote:
> Stefan Kangas [2021-11-20 04:55:17] wrote:
> 
> > Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:
> >
> >> Any chance we could change doc-view so it works without `gs` (nor
> >> `mupdf`) using one of the tools pre-installed in macOS?
> >
> > It seems like we could, from searching the web there's apparently a tool
> > called "sips" that is pre-installed on macOS.  I just checked my machine
> > and I have it there.
> >
> > AFAICT, you can't convert only one page with it, only the full page.
> > But it seems to be a hard requirement of a
> > `doc-view-pdf->png-converter-function' that we can specify a page number
> > to it, so I'm not sure how tricky it is to fit into what we have now.
> >
> > Maybe someone more familiar with doc-view could take a look.
> 
> Apparently it might also be possible to do it via AppleScript
> (according to http://preserve.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.21/21.03/BasicImageManipulation/index.html)

NSImage supports loading of PDF files natively. In fact, as I
understand it the entire NEXTstep API is built on some sort of PDF
technology. (Or is it PostScript? It only supports EPS natively, not
standard PostScript...)

I've yet to work out how to teach Emacs to open files using the native
support. It can obviously do it because it manages it for PNG, JPEG,
etc., I just need to work it out for HEIC and PDF.
-- 
Alan Third

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[David Edmondson]

On Friday, 2021-11-19 at 01:15:11 +01, Daniel Martín wrote:

> David Edmondson <dme@dme.org> writes:
>
>> Add editor role for PDF files, allowing them to be opened in Emacs via
>> the Finder.
>> ---
>>  nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in | 12 ++++++++++++
>>  1 file changed, 12 insertions(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in b/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
>> index f9f0ec0857..bd86a75e79 100644
>> --- a/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
>> +++ b/nextstep/templates/Info.plist.in
>> @@ -488,6 +488,18 @@ along with GNU Emacs.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
>>  			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
>>  			<string>Editor</string>
>>  		</dict>
>> +		<dict>
>> +			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
>> +			<array>
>> +				<string>pdf</string>
>> +			</array>
>> +			<key>CFBundleTypeIconFile</key>
>> +			<string>document.icns</string>
>> +			<key>CFBundleTypeName</key>
>> +			<string>PDF document</string>
>> +			<key>CFBundleTypeRole</key>
>> +			<string>Editor</string>
>> +		</dict>
>>  		<dict>
>>  			<key>CFBundleTypeExtensions</key>
>>  			<array>
>
> Thanks for the patch, but by default Emacs opens PDF files in
> fundamental-mode, which IMO is not very convenient for reading PDFs.

I don't see this as a reason not to include the patch. Users are not
forced to use Emacs to open PDFs, so this is only something that will
happen with explicit configuration or selection in any case.

I would also argue that fundamental mode is not a terrible place to edit
PDF documents. It's not a very good viewer, but then...

> It's true that there's also doc-view-mode, but that requires some extra
> configuration.

...doc-view-mode is a *terrible* PDF viewer for larger (1000+ page)
documents, and it is the default if ghostscript is found.

> If someone has configured Emacs to be a good PDF viewer, they can always
> force the Open With dialog to open PDFs with Emacs.

If one wishes to open all PDF documents with Emacs then this is a good
solution. If, as in my case, someone wishes to open some PDF documents
using Emacs, the existing "Open with..." is very cumbersome to use, as
it requires navigating the filesystem to find the Emacs application
every time.

The current Info.plist.in includes a clause that attempts to make Emacs
available as an editor for *all* file types on macOS, but Apple appear
to have discontinued support for this, which is unfortunate.

dme.
-- 
There's someone in my head but it's not me.

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[Tomas Hlavaty]

On Tue 23 Nov 2021 at 10:09, David Edmondson <dme@dme.org> wrote:
> I would also argue that fundamental mode is not a terrible place to edit
> PDF documents.

fundamental-mode _is_ a terrible place to edit PDF documents.

PDF documents are binary files with hardcoded file positions inside.

Re: [PATCH] nextstep: Emacs can be used to edit PDF files

[James Cloos]

ideally emacs would have a pdf mode with a set of sub-modes.

one would give a gui view and anable adding/removung/editing
text on each page

another would be a text-only mode, which would work in all types of
terminals, and also would facilitate editing as above; in this mode
each pdf object would be treated similarly to how config mode treats
each option

and the third would look like fundamental mode, but like the first two
would adjust the offsets whever any edits are made

the latter two modes would need to support switching an object or
astream between compressed and uncopressed, including the various
possibilities for compression.

with those three capabilities emacs would be an ideal option for
editing any pdf.  perhaps even the.

-JimC
-- 
James Cloos <cloos@jhcloos.com>         OpenPGP: 0x997A9F17ED7DAEA6