{"id":25841,"date":"2010-08-11T10:03:48","date_gmt":"2010-08-11T10:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/gregladen\/2010\/08\/11\/technobabble\/"},"modified":"2010-08-11T10:03:48","modified_gmt":"2010-08-11T10:03:48","slug":"technobabble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregladen.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/11\/technobabble\/","title":{"rendered":"Technobabble"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t use OpenOffice unless I have to, but sometimes I have to and it’s nice to know that a PDF importing extension is available. But there are some tricks to using it, which are nicely addressed here<\/a>.
\n
\nOne problem related to the extension, but it is not the extensions fault, is that Oracle bought Sun, and thus “owns” the extension, and is messing with it in a bad way. From the cited source:<\/p>\n

That is why free desktop users should be disturbed that Oracle, the new custodian of the extension, is not making it available for downloading. Not only is this situation a possible violation of the extension’s licensing, but, although the source code is available, I have yet to hear of anyone stepping up to maintain the extension for the general community.<\/p>\n

A real possibility exists that, a few versions from now, Sun PDF Import Extension will no longer be available. If that happens, one of OpenOffice.org’s major advantages will be lost — and that would be inexcusable. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We hate Oracle.<\/p>\n

Moving right along, who needs Oracle or OpenOffice.org when you can totally write your own software from scratch! And compile it and link it and all of that. A useful tool for doing this sort of thing is GNU’s Autotools. The problem is that Autotools itself, while useful, has a very steep learning curve and no really good tutorial. Until now.<\/p>\n