> You should thank PDF for giving you any useful electronic copies at all.
I think the point is that data dumps in PDF format are not useful at all.
I take objection to your statement that it’s easier to convert. The only reason there are so many tools to do so is because it’s so hard/impossible in the first place.
> The only reason there are so many tools to do so is because it’s so hard
What exactly do you base that on? Have you written any PDF or postscript utilities?
Images are easily located in rather discrete chunks, and they are conveniently stored in standard formats like JPEG. Preserving the layout of text output takes a bit of work, but otherwise extracting text and images is just about a necessary first early step in writing any PDF viewer. And I do believe even very early PDF viewers allowed arbitrary copy/paste of text.
I think the point is that data dumps in PDF format are not useful at all.
I take objection to your statement that it’s easier to convert. The only reason there are so many tools to do so is because it’s so hard/impossible in the first place.