Trivia
Opening Quote
The quote I used to start this chapter ("Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep") has been wrongfully attributed to Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the past, but according to quoteinvestigator.com, it was was taken from his book The Dilbert Principle by cartoonist Scott Adams.
Buy The Dilbert Principle on Amazon .com / .co.uk / .fr / .de (these links generate a commission)
Buy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Amazon .com / .co.uk / .fr / .de (these links generate a commission)
iText Design
This is a schema of the "basic building blocks" I designed for iText:
The rationale for the design decisions I made in 2000 are documented in a report I wrote in August 2000:
This report was a requirement to get tenure as an employee of Ghent University.
Website Design in the Early Years
In 2000, my personal website had a link to a
java-pdf library
.
That link referred to the first itext website:
My website evolved:
As iText became more popular, I updated the website.
I also created a tutorial that explained how to use iText.
I don't remember when I designed the first iText logo, with the
i
that looked like an eye, nor when I added the MPL as an alternative license to the LGPL.
Book Quotes
- After having experienced failure after failure with my personal projects, I didn’t think I could be successful with something as “boring” as a PDF library.
Soundtrack for this Chapter
I listen to music, but my taste in music is questionable. I've selected a handful of songs for every chapters. Sometimes, there's a link to the chapter, sometimes I just like the song.
- My Heroics, Part One, Absynthe Minded
- My Funny Valentine, Chet Baker
- My Favourite Waste of Time, Owen Paul
- Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Tears For Fears
- The World Is Not Enough, Garbage