On: Show HN: I am building a new Python library to rea...

[RantyDave]

I once had to parse a reference manual, provided as a PDF and emit a mostly-usable CSV of its content.

That shit was hard. Writing PDF is one thing but there are some psychopathic PDF's out there when you scratch below the surface. People do .... well, you'll find out.

[ehutch79 → RantyDave]

Table elements not being in consecutive display order in any direction. Like elements 0-5 from column a, followed by elements 10-12 from column b, elements 6,8.19 from column a, then elements 19-4 in reverse order from column d, all of column c....

This is a real thing I dealt with.