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I've been working on a feature to generate completion certificates by programmatically filling out PDF forms. The certificate form itself came from the client. Testing went well on my system so I pushed it out for QA.
Since then we've discovered that the customer managed to create a PDF that renders differently in Chrome, Firefox, and Acrobat Reader. It only renders the way the customer wants in Chrome. Two of the three fields I'm madlibbing text in work as expected in all three renderers. The third correctly shows a 2 digit number in Chrome. In Firefox the field is treated as slightly narrower or the number slightly larger and only the leading digit shows. In Arcobat Reader - which as Adobe's product I presume is following the spec correctly - both digits show left-right but they're shifted up half a character height and the tops are cut off as a result.
This happens if the blank form is opened and manually filled out in the different pdf viewers; it's not something I/PdfSharp are doing wrong.
I kinda wish I had a PDF editor so I could strip out everything customer identifying and create a boilerplate file reproducing the problem to submit as bugs to Google and Mozilla.
Of all the code I've written for all the applications I've created, I never expected to find bugs in software from big name companies this way.  
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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Dan Neely wrote: never expected to find bugs in software from big name companies
Find them? No. 
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: Dan Neely wrote: never expected to find bugs in software from big name companies
Find them? No.
You cut off the key part of my comment "... this way". I've found "normal" bugs in their code, and even managed to unlock the Made MS Fix Their Stuff achievement last year. But a simple rendering bug that could be reached by any non-technical user is in another category entirely.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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Dan Neely wrote: I kinda wish I had a PDF editor
pdftk
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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cutePDF.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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I would also check the PDF for errors using Ghostscript, or any other way, like online PDF checker tools ...
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The "P" in PDF seems to be missing, no?
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Quote: the customer managed to create a PDF that renders differently in Chrome, Firefox, and Acrobat Reader
My poor joke: The "P" is meant to mean Portable. That doc doesn't sound particularly portable.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote: My poor joke:
As was I. What Adobe wants PDF to stand for and what it actually is are two different things. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
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Worth watching then?
I have been meaning to check it out, but it's on a list with many other things...
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Yes. It's a cross between "Top Gear Goes Farming - How Hard Can It Be?" and "Country Life".
Well worth watching if you have Prime!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Two and a half weeks ago, I was asked to upgrade one of our core software packages to the latest version. I contacted our supplier and they said, (because of security), they would need to white-list us to allow access to their download website. It took just over a week for that to happen.
As soon as it was done, I pointed my browser at their download website and got "Website blocked". Yep! Our security was not letting me out - because, (they claimed), it was a non-business related site. So I then had to request our security to white-list our supplier's site. That, again, took over a week.
This morning, I finally got access and logged into the download site. I clicked on the .zip file to download it - and...
... Nope! I'm not allowed to download that type of file.
Back to security!
Yes, I understand that we can't just leave the doors open - because there are bad people out there. But bricking them up and needing to get the builders in to let you in and out seems a 'little' impractical.
Seriously doing my head in!  
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I understand the frustration - but blame the people who created your security concept, not the need of security.
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Rage wrote: blame the people who created your security concept
Yes! I absolutely do. If they want to lock everything down - fine. But they have to be able to deal with exceptions quickly and easily. Not put this through a 'Change Control' process that needs the approval of 5 or 6 people - and then go to a weekly Change Board Meeting, for the consideration of a dozen people who know sod all about it.
The Baddies have won, because security have reached a level of paranoia that has created paralysis by process.
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Change control boards have nothing to do with security and everything to do with the non-technical Six Sigma crowd moving into the cybersecurity field.
Those people are, of course, the actual baddies.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity."
- Hanlon's Razor
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I'm convinced that were it ever to be studied honestly, we'd find out that 95% of the world's current problems were either caused or exacerbated by process honks trying to shoehorn trendy methodologies in everywhere.
I also think that, sooner or later, some process monkey is going to figure out a way to position 6 Sigma, Agile, Business of Management, and open source in to a single super-methodology, which will cause the universe to BSOD.
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5teveH wrote: Yes, I understand that we can't just leave the doors open -
You don't need to... Microsoft and other suppliers do that job for you 
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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At this point I would have been notifying my CEO that due to our corporate bureaucracy that the version we're on, with all it's known vulnerabilities, is the last version we can get.
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go home. Download it. Then upload with a different extension or put on USB drive.
Be sure and change the extension. Until you copy it to your computer at work then copy it back.
old employer had this same issues. took at least a week to work around. each issue. Wound up many times going home downloading then changing the extension then bringing into work.
WHICH IS MORE OF A SECURITY HOLE! but it worked.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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They have disabled USB on our laptops too! Otherwise, I would have.
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email it to myself as an attachment with a different extension?
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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