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macmike42 · Jul 24, 2003, 10:21 PM

Cleaning up my hard drive a while back and I finally figured out why Adobe Reader would no longer launch...

If you have the Dev Tools installed, quit Adobe Reader if it is running, open the Terminal and type:

/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a V '~/Library/Acrobat User Data'

(makes the 'Acrobat User Data' folder invisible, please do not leave out the single quotes)

Now try to launch Adobe Reader. It crashes immediately after starting up. Checking the crash log, it appears to have something to do with Adobe's JavaScript engine. This is happening even tough one of the first things I did was turn Acrobat JavaScript off. (Why the hell would I want my digital paper to be scriptable? Hello? I'll take my online manuals virus-free, thank you! No, my digital paper should not be allowed to launch applications or media players! WTF?)

I mean, it's a little thing, and I can live with it, but I just spent half an hour trying to figure out why I couldn't launch Adobe Reader, only to find out that Adobe not only insists on putting folders in the wrong spot, but they demand visibility and recreate themselves every time you delete them. At least the damn "Legal" folder stays gone after you delete it. (I clicked "Agree", get over yourselves!) Not only that, but it is quite clear that a feature that I consider a potential gaping security hole is not disabled even though I have specifically turned it off.

If you typed the above Terminal command and don't know how to get Adobe Reader working again, here's the command:

/Developer/Tools/SetFile -a v '~/Library/Acrobat User Data'

Thank you for you time...

(BTW, I posted this not just to bitch, but also just in case anyone is experiencing the same problem)

Adam Betts · Jul 24, 2003, 11:36 PM

You don't have to say "F You!" to Adobe. Apple already did that in Panther's Preview 2.0

arekkusu · Jul 25, 2003, 02:11 AM

1) I totally agree that creation of data folders in highly visible places is irritating.

2) Scriptability has its uses. Imagine for a moment that you are a bank, or the IRS, and have thousands or millions of forms to process.

3) I don't suppose you've called Adobe's support about it, so they know it's bothering customers and can do something about it in a dot release?

4) Preview is not going to replace Acrobat anytime soon. Was Re: forms, annotation.

tikki · Jul 25, 2003, 02:54 AM

Originally posted by Adam Betts:
You don't have to say "F You!" to Adobe. Apple already did that in Panther's Preview 2.0

Horsepoo!!! · Jul 25, 2003, 05:14 PM

Originally posted by arekkusu:

4) Preview is not going to replace Acrobat anytime soon. Was Re: forms, annotation.

Forms? Annotation? Who cares? Nobody but maybe a few anal retentive types...they can keep using Adobe's crummy software for all I care.

JLL · Jul 25, 2003, 05:19 PM

Originally posted by Horseshit!!!:
Forms? Annotation? Who cares?

People trying to fill out those forms.

Horsepoo!!! · Jul 25, 2003, 06:00 PM

Originally posted by JLL:
People trying to fill out those forms.

== a few anal retentive types.

JLL · Jul 25, 2003, 06:49 PM

Originally posted by Horseshit!!!:
== a few anal retentive types.

So your anal retentive when you have to fill out a PDF form to apply for something?

Just because you don't use a certain feature in a software app doesn't make the people using that feature anal retentive types.

chris.p · Jul 25, 2003, 07:29 PM

+1 for the annotations- its the best way I know (and can think of) to get feedback from a client regarding layouts. It just works- Hopefully... it will be in the final version of preview (2?)

macmike42 · Jul 25, 2003, 07:37 PM

I just wanted to say that I actually like Adobe Reader 6.0 a lot. Forms and annotations are extremely useful, for some professions (proofreading for example), the latter makes or brakes the deal. As for scripting, an AppleScript-like solution (such as Photoshop's JavaScript support) is great, but embedding JavaScript code and enabling documents to launch application is not only backwards, but asking for trouble.

I was just trying to express my distaste for the fact that the application bundle itself contains all files needed for the app to function, yet it insists on vomitting them throughout my system no matter how many times I delete them, and refuses to run if I hide them manually.

I guess putting "F You" in the topic title was asking for trouble as well, my bad...

Horsepoo!!! · Jul 25, 2003, 08:56 PM

Whaaaaaaat!? Everyone loves speed over functionality. If this wasn't the case, everyone would be buying Macs. It's uncool to not have the fastest product on the market....apparently.

Preview 10.3 = faster than Reader
Therefore,
Preview 10.3 = better than Reader

voodoo · Jul 26, 2003, 12:06 PM

Originally posted by JLL:
So your anal retentive when you have to fill out a PDF form to apply for something?

...the epitome of anal retentiveness jll.

JLL · Jul 26, 2003, 12:08 PM

Originally posted by voodoo:
...the epitome of anal retentiveness jll.

Oh a post from voodoo who can't post anything but personal attacks lately.

voodoo · Jul 26, 2003, 01:21 PM

Originally posted by JLL:
Oh a post from voodoo who can't post anything but personal attacks lately.

whatever - mr. "IShouldBePayedByAdobeForExcusingThemOnMacNN"

JLL · Jul 26, 2003, 01:28 PM

Originally posted by voodoo:
whatever - mr. "IShouldBePayedByAdobeForExcusingThemOnMacNN"

And you're "IBendForwardAndTakesItInTheButtFromQaurkSinceIDon 'tMindToPayForTwiceTheQXPLicensesWith6ComparedToBe foreAndAnyoneComplainingAboutThatAreIdiotsThatDon' tUnderstandAnything"?

Jeesuz - I'm excusing Adobe because Reader can do something that's vital to our business and Preview can't?

arekkusu · Jul 26, 2003, 07:55 PM

Originally posted by Horseshit!!!:
Forms? Annotation? Who cares?

Go file your taxes.

Sam Venning · Jul 27, 2003, 12:27 AM

Try deleting your Adobe Acrobat Reader preferences. A couple of times I had applications that quit on startup deleting the preference file for that particular application fixed the problem.

Try looking in /Users/~home/Library/Preferences

...where ~home is your home folder.

macmike42 · Jul 27, 2003, 10:43 AM

Originally posted by Sam Venning:
Try deleting your Adobe Acrobat Reader preferences.

Um, I posted the solution... Sorry guess I should have mentioned I deleted my preferences, LaunchServices cache files, repaired permissions, re-installed Reader, ran DiskWarrior, deleted the AdobeFntXX.lst files, etc, etc, etc, before I discovered the solution posted above.

voodoo · Jul 27, 2003, 11:14 AM

Originally posted by JLL:
And you're "IBendForwardAndTakesItInTheButtFromQaurkSinceIDon 'tMindToPayForTwiceTheQXPLicensesWith6ComparedToBe foreAndAnyoneComplainingAboutThatAreIdiotsThatDon' tUnderstandAnything"?

Jeesuz - I'm excusing Adobe because Reader can do something that's vital to our business and Preview can't?

Ahh.. a sense of humour. There may be hope for you yet jll.

Still you are focusing on a thing *you* need not *I* .. are you by chance an IT technician?

bojangles · Jul 27, 2003, 04:50 PM

I just finished creating a PDF manual that allows users to submit parts orders from within the document. There’s a long, long list of replacement parts, and clicking on the shopping cart icon next to any one of them adds the part to the order form at the end. When the user is done, he can print, fax, or e-mail the form back to us—and we don’t have to waste our time looking up parts and/or hoping the customer ordered the right item; there’s a photo of each item in the PDF (so the customer can be sure of what he’s getting), and the parts numbers already on the form.

JavaScripting this form will save our Parts Department a lot of time! If Preview 2.0 can handle this, I’d love to recommend it over Adobe Reader; otherwise, we’re stuck with the latter.

clarkgoble · Jul 28, 2003, 05:26 PM

The full Acrobat also does nice indexing and searching of PDF files. Of course I'm biased since I wrote that part. <grin> (I don't work for Adobe, but they purchased the code from us)