Hi All!
Distributing the applet as some kind of add-on would be the way to go, imho.
That would be a good trade-off.
Regarding the whole Java-thingie, I just have this pragmatic point of view: What is the alternative to providing an applet for easy PDF positioning (which is important for everyone seriously using the PDF feature? I don't see how this can be done with today's techniques, even though you all keep saying you don't like Java. :)
I mean, it's not that we are forced to develop that applet, but we are offered an allegedly working software. I agree with what nijel said about maintainability. The suggestion to make a cfg switch for it and add a link in our Documentation and/or inside the config file is good for me. If we ever decide to upgrade our pdf page generation so that the java applet becomes unusable, we are still free to drop it.
How about waiting if this person ever mails back (which he hasn't done so far) and let's evaluate that applet from a user's view?
Regards, Garvin.