The pdf_filter_processor is an example of a processor that allows chaining. PDF operators are fed into the processor, which then `filters' them and passes them out to another processor.
Similar filtering processors could be written for other tasks, such as discarding all the text from a page, changing all occurrences of a particular font for another, or converting all the objects on a page to a given colorspace.
The component parts of this processor are generally functions named pdf_filter_....