Re: [libreoffice-users] PDF export checking whether the file is locked (opened) by another program before starting exporting over it

At 13:55 30/11/2014 +0100, Jaroslaw Staniek wrote:
> Google for "acrobat reader file locking" and you'd notice that this 
> unnecessary locking is inherent issue of Windows. You're dealing 
> with behavior largely inherited from the MS DOS era. You can pick 
> other pdf reader.

Surely that evidence falsifies your claim? If it's possible for 
another reader under the same operating system not to lock the file, 
then the locking cannot be a property of the operating system, still 
less of its legacy? In fact, it cannot be: just look at Windows' 
Notepad, which does not lock files it opens.

I'm no expert, but I know that it is possible to edit some aspects of 
a PDF document in Adobe Reader (not "Acrobat"), providing this has 
been enabled by the document's author. 
http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/reader.html says Adobe Reader is 
capable of "viewing, printing, and *annotating* PDF documents" (my 
emphasis). Is that why Adobe Reader opts to lock the file, not 
knowing when you open the document whether you intend to do this?

> If you ask about Linux, it was solved *properly* years ago. If 
> you're a pro you can try e.g. Okular reader which reloads the pdf 
> automatically and never locks.

Again, we should not be talking operating systems here. All you do by 
changing to Linux is to prevent yourself using Adobe Reader, which is 
not available for that system. If your chosen reader does not provide 
the annotating capabilities of Adobe Reader, it may indeed have no 
reason to lock a displayed PDF document. This may well suit your 
purposes better.

> Why would it in a modern multiuser Internet-enabled environment?

When the product is capable of some modification to the file, in 
order to preclude update races?

Brian Barker  


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