There are FOSS implementations of PDF. Mozilla has one, I think.
Edit: yep.
Edit: yep.
I've used other PDF viewers (Evince, xpdf, gs, mupdf), and tell you what.. I've come across PDFs they cannot display properly.
If I have to rely on others implementing things for me, and there is concrete evidence that others have trouble doing it, why would I rely on such a format?
Do you also implement your own OS from scratch, or do you rely on others?
Every FOSS OS I know of has patches coming out on near-daily basis.
No, not today. Maybe in the future, who knows.
But I try not to depend on too many things and people, if there's a way around it. I like to have control. That's freedom to me, and freedom gives me peace of mind.
So, no, I don't see why I should waste my precious free time improving software support for a format that I find way overcomplicated and just plain silly. Why should I?
If plain text does the job for you, great. If not, and you come up with something better than PDF, also great. I'll be happy to use it.
Complaining is always a lot easier than doing.
If my mom can't open a pdf in pdf.js, I'm not going to tell her "Well mom, patches welcome."
It's the whole point of FOSS. If it doesn't work for you, fix it.
This criticism is especially off-base given that the OP said he wanted something he could control. Use the source, Luke!
"I'd rather bet on something you can implement all by yourself without needing to wade through a thousand page spec."
pdf.js was obviously outside the bounds of what he said he wanted from the beginning. You stubbornly brought it up anyway, then gave a nasty, clichéd response when he pointed out exactly why it was the wrong answer.
"If it doesn't work for you, fix it" is ridiculous. It's saying "here's this thing that doesn't do what you want, go make it do what you want instead of using these other things that already do what you want".