Using PDF instead of HTML

Question

To whom it may concern at Adobe,
After careful consideration of the numerous present technologies for website content (including HTML, PHP, Java, JavaScript, MySQL, etc, and systems like Typo3, Joomla, etc), we decided to drop everything in favour of PDF, being both an ISO standard and the standard de facto for office documentation. Everybody has Acrobat Reader installed, the browser plugin is also installed, and therefore everybody is able to display an http://.../index.pdf. Problems that are common to other websites, such as SQL injection, the need to keep a backup of the SQL server, the demand for space (the bare installation of typo3 demands 1GB of server space), for example, they are problems that we simply do not want to have. Today, as a result of the initial considerations and subsequent development, a singe index.pdf file of 200K holds our entire website. Dynamic content is loaded by included swfs that read various .xml files. The website displays beautifully on a Mac with Safari and Acrobat X, or on Windows XP with any browser. There are a few problems, however, that are still pending. We describe them here.
The call of index.pdf from index.html may result into a blank page, and the Acrobat Reader plugin makes no effort to inform and help the human client. It turns out that Acrobat Reader v10 is not available on all platforms. For example, linux (ubuntu v11) and solaris (v11) still have Acrobar Reader v9. On linux or solaris you see a "3d data parsing error'' each time you open a page with included swf. This does not happen all the times. It only happens if your installed version is different than version 9.2. Both 9.3 and 9.4 show the above error. This is a manyfold problem, because the latest version on those systems is version 9.4; version 10 is not available from Adobe and most people are not willing to downgrade to version 9.2, which is also not available from the system's default package manager. Other systems are not devoid of problems. On Apple OSX, for example, the plugin is only available for Safari. If your default browser is Firefox, or Chrome, or Opera, you cannot see the index.pdf. You are forced to use Safari. On Apple iOS, even Safari fails to run the index.pdf, because Acrobat Reader is not avilable for that platform. We solved most of these problems via an HTML+JavaScript loader that performs a compatibility check up. If all tests are successful, then the HTML calls the PDF. If the tests fail, then a courtesy message appears, explaining the problem(s) and describing the steps that the user must execute to solve the problem(s). If the user does not want to use the Acrobat plugin, then the user is redirected to the RSS feeds. The whole website is built upon RSS feeds, and thus the user has access to (most of) the website content. You can read this code at the following address: http://www.MadreAcqua.org/index.html. This is not sufficient, however. We had people with Acrobat Reader X installed on Adobe supported systems, but their browser plugin was still version 9; it turned out that the update of the Reader application failed to update the Reader plugin. On Windows 7+updates, with Firefox 4+updates and Acrobat Reader 10+ updates, the index.pdf does not display the included swfs. We remark that it works on Windows XP+updates and Adobe Reader 10 with any browser. The failure on Windows 7 is therefore a mistery. There are also people who are sick and tired of updating Acrobat Reader by hand, or do not have the skill or time to do it. This is also the source of recent security concerns.
The following are additional problems.
1. The index.pdf includes SWFs for its dynamic parts (RSS readers and video). Sometimes, randomly, the SWFs do either of the following: they disappear (the only way to make them appear again is to click on their area); they disappear and reappear like christmas lights (the only way to make them stop is to reload the page); they also disappear or reappear when resizing the browser's window.
2. The mouse wheel flips the pages instead of scrolling. More precisely, each page of the website is displayed in full. If one scrolls, however, the engine should try scrolling, find that the page is displayed in full, and therefore nothing should happen. Instead, the engine shows the next page of the PDF. The PDF was built with the "single page view" flag, but the engine forces the "Enable Scrolling" mode. This seems to be a bug of Adobe Reader. 
In summary, dear Adobe, please ensure that all platforms have the same version of Acrobat Reader plugin, and that the plugin is automatically updated, similarly to Flash Player 10.3. A single plugin (pdf+swf) would also be useful to have. Please also make an official loader as part of the plugin, both to solve (most of) the above problems and rise your own awareness of them. Failure to do so implies your failure to offer sound competition to HTML++.
Best regards,
M.A.S.T.

Answer 1

> At the time Reader nine was released, there was NO SUCH THING as Reader 10. It didn't exist.
Where is the problem here? Adobe can release an update for version 9 that makes it aware of version 10, then perform the actual update to version 10.
> I agree it should.... it should also inform about versions 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, ad infinitum until the end of time too.
It would be easier to just release the source code, once.
> You know that you are under no legal obligation to update anything. If you visithttp://oldversion.com/Acrobat%20Reader.html you can download Adobe Reader version 1 if you feel so inclined, and you will be able to view hardly any PDFs at all, including PDF websites. It's entirely up to you.
The recent security attacks are all based upon people still using version 9, and Adobe did not gain in reputation because of it. There is also a loss in functionality, both because version 9.2 can display inline swf while 9.3 and 9.4 trigger a still unpatched "3d data parsing error", and version 10 is not available on all platforms.
It is not clear whether you work for Adobe or its competitors.
It is clear, however, that the present Reader is not good enough for our purpose.
e.o.f.
The original message was:
To whom it may concern at Adobe,
After careful consideration of the numerous present technologies for website content (including HTML, PHP, Java, JavaScript, MySQL, etc, and systems like Typo3, Joomla, etc), we decided to drop everything in favour of PDF, being both an ISO standard and the standard de facto for office documentation. Everybody has Acrobat Reader installed, the browser plugin is also installed, and therefore everybody is able to display an http://.../index.pdf. Problems that are common to other websites, such as SQL injection, the need to keep a backup of the SQL server, the demand for space (the bare installation of typo3 demands 1GB of server space), for example, they are problems that we simply do not want to have. Today, as a result of the initial considerations and subsequent development, a singe index.pdf file of 200K holds our entire website. Dynamic content is loaded by included swfs that read various .xml files. The website displays beautifully on a Mac with Safari and Acrobat X, or on Windows XP with any browser. There are a few problems, however, that are still pending. We describe them here.
The call of index.pdf from index.html may result into a blank page, and the Acrobat Reader plugin makes no effort to inform and help the human client. It turns out that Acrobat Reader v10 is not available on all platforms. For example, linux (ubuntu v11) and solaris (v11) still have Acrobar Reader v9. On linux or solaris you see a "3d data parsing error'' each time you open a page with included swf. This does not happen all the times. It only happens if your installed version is different than version 9.2. Both 9.3 and 9.4 show the above error. This is a manyfold problem, because the latest version on those systems is version 9.4; version 10 is not available from Adobe and most people are not willing to downgrade to version 9.2, which is also not available from the system's default package manager. Other systems are not devoid of problems. On Apple OSX, for example, the plugin is only available for Safari. If your default browser is Firefox, or Chrome, or Opera, you cannot see the index.pdf. You are forced to use Safari. On Apple iOS, even Safari fails to run the index.pdf, because Acrobat Reader is not avilable for that platform. We solved most of these problems via an HTML+JavaScript loader that performs a compatibility check up. If all tests are successful, then the HTML calls the PDF. If the tests fail, then a courtesy message appears, explaining the problem(s) and describing the steps that the user must execute to solve the problem(s). If the user does not want to use the Acrobat plugin, then the user is redirected to the RSS feeds. The whole website is built upon RSS feeds, and thus the user has access to (most of) the website content. You can read this code at the following address: http://www.MadreAcqua.org/index.html. This is not sufficient, however. We had people with Acrobat Reader X installed on Adobe supported systems, but their browser plugin was still version 9; it turned out that the update of the Reader application failed to update the Reader plugin. On Windows 7+updates, with Firefox 4+updates and Acrobat Reader 10+ updates, the index.pdf does not display the included swfs. We remark that it works on Windows XP+updates and Adobe Reader 10 with any browser. The failure on Windows 7 is therefore a mistery. There are also people who are sick and tired of updating Acrobat Reader by hand, or do not have the skill or time to do it. This is also the source of recent security concerns.
The following are additional problems.
1. The index.pdf includes SWFs for its dynamic parts (RSS readers and video). Sometimes, randomly, the SWFs do either of the following: they disappear (the only way to make them appear again is to click on their area); they disappear and reappear like christmas lights (the only way to make them stop is to reload the page); they also disappear or reappear when resizing the browser's window.
2. The mouse wheel flips the pages instead of scrolling. More precisely, each page of the website is displayed in full. If one scrolls, however, the engine should try scrolling, find that the page is displayed in full, and therefore nothing should happen. Instead, the engine shows the next page of the PDF. The PDF was built with the "single page view" flag, but the engine forces the "Enable Scrolling" mode. This seems to be a bug of Adobe Reader.
In summary, dear Adobe, please ensure that all platforms have the same version of Acrobat Reader plugin, and that the plugin is automatically updated, similarly to Flash Player 10.3. A single plugin (pdf+swf) would also be useful to have. Please also make an official loader as part of the plugin, both to solve (most of) the above problems and rise your own awareness of them. Failure to do so implies your failure to offer sound competition to HTML++.
Best regards,
M.A.S.T.
Message was edited by: M.A.S.T.