[poppler] Should we aim for having utils only using public API, ideally cpp/ ?

[suzuki toshiya]

On 2020/01/14 13:56, Oliver Sander wrote:
>>> We have asked third party uses of non public headers to come forward and
>>> describe their needs multiple times, we've always got a big silence as
>>> answer.
>>
>> Not completely true ;-)
> 
> Indeed.  As mentioned I have also received descriptions of what the LibreOffice folks do.
> In order to import pdf files they subclass OutputDev to 'paint' into a custom internal
> format they have. I'll dig out the details on request.
> 
> Best,
> Oliver

I agree with "Not completely true".

In the past, OpenPrinting consortium members had asked about the usage
of APIs in non public headers, to make yet another OutputDev, as the
lo-end printers by Japanese companies (note: some lo-end inkjet printers
want to interact with the host machines, so, making a fixed printer data
by PS or PDF are not sufficient).

I remember, the reply was something like "you should use cpp-interface".
But the coverage of cpp interface is too small to implement yet another
OutputDev.

Regards,
mpsuzuki