[poppler] Incremental update in poppler

[Dominic Lachowicz]

On 7/12/06, John C Barstow <jbowtie at amathaine.com> wrote:
> A linearized document with updates is expected to be handled the same
> way as a standard document. If the size in the linear dictionary does
> not match the actual file size, you are supposed to assume the PDF has
> been updated and fall back to non-linear handling. (Actually, you could
> do an analysis here to decide whether or not to stay in linear mode, but
> I don't think that's practical for the current state of poppler code.)

The whole point of a linearized PDF is that you don't need apriori
knowledge of the PDF document's size - the file has been optimized so
that you can render it while streaming it in. Any changes that
invalidate the linearization dictionary's correctness necessarily
break this useful feature. Worse still, you won't know that it's wrong
until you're done streaming the document and run into the correct
XREF/trailer all the way at the end.

Best,
Dom
-- 
Counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums.