[python-win32] Acrobat Reader

[Tim Roberts]

On Wed, 5 Apr 2006 11:55:18 -0600, "Waldemar Osuch"
<waldemar.osuch at gmail.com> wrote:

>I know Dispatch used to work with the Reader.  Did Adobe broke the
>Reader to force us to pay for the full version or is it pythoncom at
>fault here?

The Acrobat 5 Reader exposed an AcroExch.App object, but (according to
Google) was an accident. They didn't mean to expose that unless you had
purchsed the full product.

>But then again I have working .Net application that uses Reader to
>display files.
>I did not write the .Net one so do not ask me how it does it  :-) .
>But I do have source and could try to find out.

That would be interesting to know. If it is using it as a hosted ActiveX
control, rather than a simple COM object, that could be the difference.

>>> The Acrobat ActiveX wrapper in wxPython explodes with version 7, deep
>>> within Acrobat, where it has never done so before.  The problem has not
>>> been isolated yet.
>
>It is the same issue.  I think.

The failure mode is different. The AcroPDF.PDF / LoadFile thing crashes
very early, only about two calls deep into acropdf.dll, dereferencing a
null pointer. Is it possible that the LoadFile API requires some other
parameter that is defaulting to NULL?

>>>
>>> The only reliable and portable way to do what you ask is to fire up the
>>> reader from a command line.
>
>Yes but then you can not control it at all.


There is a command-line parameter asking it to print the file
immediately.  For many purposes, that is enough.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.