[jira] [Commented] (PDFBOX-2530) Improve PDFDebugger

["Tilman Hausherr (JIRA)" <ji...@apache.org>]

    [ https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PDFBOX-2530?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=14355213#comment-14355213 ] 

Tilman Hausherr commented on PDFBOX-2530:
-----------------------------------------

Hey students! Read this:
http://community.apache.org/gsoc.html

> Improve PDFDebugger
> -------------------
>
>                 Key: PDFBOX-2530
>                 URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PDFBOX-2530
>             Project: PDFBox
>          Issue Type: Improvement
>          Components: Utilities
>    Affects Versions: 1.8.8, 2.0.0
>            Reporter: Tilman Hausherr
>              Labels: gsoc2015
>
> (This is an idea for the [Google Summer of Code 2015|https://www.google-melange.com/])
> Our command line utility PDFDebugger (part of the command line pdfbox-app get it [here|https://pdfbox.apache.org/downloads.html], read description [here|https://pdfbox.apache.org/commandline/], see the source code [here|https://svn.apache.org/viewvc/pdfbox/trunk/tools/src/main/java/org/apache/pdfbox/tools/PDFDebugger.java?view=markup&sortby=date]) needs some improvements:
>    - hex view
>    - view of non printable characters
>    - saving streams
>    - binary copy & paste
>    - Create a status line that shows where we are in the tree. (Like in the Windows REGEDIT)
>    - Copy the current tree string into the clipboard (useful in discussions about details of a PDF)
>    - (Optional, not sure if easy) Jump to specific place in the tree by entering tree string
>    - ability to search in streams (very useful for content streams and meta data)
>    - show images that are streams
>    - show PDIndexed color lookup table, show the index value, the base and RGB color value sets when the mouse moves
>    - show PDSeparation color
>    - show PDDeviceN colors
>    - show font encodings and characters
>    - edit attributes
>    - edit streams, while keeping or changing the compression filter
>    - save altered PDF 
>    - color mark of certain PDF operators, especially Q...q and text operators (BT...ET). Ideally, it should help the user understand the "bracketing" of these operators, i.e. understand where a sequence starts and where it ends. (See "operator summary" in the PDF Spec) Other "important" operators I can think of are the matrix, font and color operators. A cool advanced thing would be to show the current color or the font in a popup when hovering above such an operator.
> To see a product with a similar purpose that is better than PDFDebugger, watch [this video|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-QcU9B4qMc].
> I'm not asking to implement a clone of that product (I don't use it, all I know is that video), but we at PDFBox really need something that makes PDF debugging easier. As an example of how the current PDFDebugger prevented me from finding a bug quickly, see PDFBOX-2401 and search for "PDFDebugger".
> Prerequisites:
> - java programming, especially the GUI components
> - the ability to understand existing source code
> Using external software components is possible (must have Apache License or a compatible one), but should be decided on a case-by-case basis, we don't want to get too big.
> Development strategy: go from the easy to the difficult. The wished features are already sorted this way (mostly).
> Get introduced: [download the source code with svn|https://pdfbox.apache.org/downloads.html#scm] and build it with maven. Run PDFDebugger and view some PDFs to see the components of a PDF. Start with the file of PDFBOX-2401. Read up something about the structure of PDF on the web or from the [PDF Specification|https://www.adobe.com/devnet/pdf/pdf_reference.html].
> Mentor: Tilman Hausherr (European timezone, languages: german, english, french). To see the GSoC2014 project I mentored, go to PDFBOX-1915.



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