Xpdf

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Xpdf

Xpdf logo.svg
Xpdf-screenshot.png
Basic data

developer Glyph & Cog
Current  version 4.0
( August 10, 2017 )
operating system various Unix derivatives , macOS , Windows , Windows Mobile , Palm OS , AmigaOS
programming language C ++
category PDF viewer
License GPLv 2 only, GPLv3 only, or proprietary license
German speaking No
xpdfreader.com

Xpdf is a free PDF - viewer for Unix-like operating systems . In addition to a pure display program, it provides other programs that make it possible to convert PDF files, read PDF information or extract images embedded in the PDF document.

Xpdf is also available as free software in source code under the terms of version 2 or later of the GNU General Public License (GPL). It is mainly written in the programming language C ++ and uses the GUI toolkit Motif under the X server on Unix systems . In the meantime it has also been ported for Windows , whereby only those program parts that do not require a graphical user interface (such as pdftops and pdftotext) can be run under Windows.

history

Xpdf was first published on December 12, 1995 (version 0.2). Poppler was split off from Xpdf version 3.0, which appeared on January 22, 2004.

criticism

Recently, Xpdf has come under increasing criticism. On the one hand, the closed development concept was criticized, which prevents other developers from contributing code without problems, as is usual with many other free software projects. Xpdf also does not provide any libraries that can be linked against. Programs that want to use Xpdf have to include some code from Xpdf. As a result, security holes in the Xpdf code not only require an update of Xpdf, but also of all programs that contain Xpdf. The attempt to equip Xpdf with as few dependencies on other programs as possible is also controversial. Many developers complain that this is not always beneficial.

In response to these points of criticism, the Poppler project was founded, a spin-off from Xpdf that is being developed according to a new model in which the points of criticism are eliminated.

Web links

Commons : Xpdf  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Download XpdfReader . (accessed on October 20, 2018).
  2. ↑ Xpdf for Microsoft Windows Mobile
  3. ↑ Porting Xpdf for Palm OS ( Memento of the original from September 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.metaviewsoft.de
  4. ↑ Apdf
  5. ↑ about on foolabs.com "Xpdf is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 2. In my opinion, the GPL is a convoluted, confusing, ambiguous mess. But it's also pervasive, and I'm sick of arguing . And even if it is confusing, the basic idea is good. "
  6. ↑ xpdf xpdf 3.03 "The license was changed from GPLv2 to dual v2 / v3 licensing."
  7. ^ The Xpdf Open Source Project on Open Hub. In: openhub.net. Retrieved November 8, 2015 .