Slashdot Mirror


SVG 1.1 Becomes W3C Proposed Recomendation

openbear writes "From the w3c web site... W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 and Mobile SVG to Proposed Recommendations. Comments are welcome through 20 December. SVG delivers vector graphics, text, and images to the Web in XML. SVG 1.1 separates the SVG language into reusable building blocks. Mobile SVG re-combines them into two profiles optimized for cellphones and pocket computers."

168 comments

  1. A what now? by ejdmoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    A proposed recommendation for possibility of consideration of partial inclusion...

    1. Re:A what now? by packeteer · · Score: 2

      So there is a 1% chance that this will end up in a real change/project. Its basically just a bunch of theoretical stuff that if about a dozen decisions go the right way will mean something 5 years from now.

      --
      unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
    2. Re:A what now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wow youre so damn insightful, you must have an immense dick

  2. Awesome by mao+che+minh · · Score: 1, Funny

    Sounds like a novel idea, too bad I have no idea what they're talking about.

    1. Re:Awesome by bluFox · · Score: 4, Informative
      Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is XML specification for creating Vector graphics (It can be embeded in html pages)

      SVG can be used like flash , and you can use javascript to manipulate the shapes on page.

      See batikfor an apache implementation of it and some examples (quite nice ones) , and adobe provides a nice viewer for the svg too..

      The good point bt vector graphics is that it is scalable , and sizing of images do not affect the clarity/sharpness of the images


      ---

      --
      ~561
    2. Re:Awesome by 21mhz · · Score: 2

      The GNOME project uses SVG for UI graphics extensively.
      For example, see the Scalable Gorilla theme for Nautilus.

      --
      My exception safety is -fno-exceptions.
    3. Re:Awesome by WowTIP · · Score: 3, Informative

      Now, hold your horses.

      Saying that Gnome uses SVG extensively is an exaggeration at this point. The only use of SVG in Gnome so far, is for rendering icons on the desktop and in Nautilus. There are plans for letting other UI elements be SVG based to, but they are just plans. If you plan using SVG icons as desktop icons you also better make some PNG renderings of them too, if you want the same theme in the panel and menus, since you can't use SVG there yet.

      Also, Nautilus SVG renderer seems kind of incomplete in one way or another. SVG images that works in Sodipodi, Adobe viewer, Illustrator and Mozilla SVG, renders incorrectly in Nautilus. Wrong colours, missing gradients.

      And, Scalable Gorilla isn't an example, it is the only SVG theme available. A very nice looking theme though. :)

      --

      --

      "I'm surfin the dead zone
      In the twilight, unknown"
    4. Re:Awesome by Pozac · · Score: 1

      You seem to have missed this summary :) quote: "Last week we brought you the story of Dominic Lachowicz having made a SVG GTK+ theme engine. This week Dom has added to that by creating a SVG loader for gdk-pixbuf. This means that we now should be able to use SVG images everywhere in GNOME2, including places such as the GTK+ stock icons, the desktop background image and panel backround images."

    5. Re:Awesome by WowTIP · · Score: 2

      Let me quote myself: "The only use of SVG in Gnome so far...".

      Yes, there are goodies on the way, but right now, the only things in Gnome you can replace with SVG are icons. :)

      --

      --

      "I'm surfin the dead zone
      In the twilight, unknown"
    6. Re:Awesome by WowTIP · · Score: 2

      Ok, I correct myself. There is more than plans, but nothing released yet, as far as I can tell. :)

      --

      --

      "I'm surfin the dead zone
      In the twilight, unknown"
  3. See also XForms by leighklotz · · Score: 5, Informative

    See also W3C XForms, which has just become a Candidate Recommendation (one step before PR). XForms updates HTML forms to be XML-based, and plays well with other standards, adding forms to SVG and other XML applications. There are already about a dozen XForms implementations, ranging from those for hand-held devices to standalone clients and popular browser plug-ins. (And a Bugzilla entry for Mozilla that is entertaining reading, though a link from Slashdot won't work anyway.)

    Disclaimer: I am one of the editors of the XForms spec.

    1. Re:See also XForms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
      There are already about a dozen XForms implementations, ranging from those for hand-held devices to standalone clients and popular browser plug-ins

      How many of these implementations support the UPLOAD form control?

      Why do you expect browser authors to implement XForms when they don't even implement the ACCEPT attribute of HTML's INPUT TYPE=FILE element?

      Disclaimer: I worked on XForms for most of 1999.

  4. Quick Info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I heard that Redhat is planning to embedd librSVG (depends on some GNOME libraries) and GTK+ natively into XFree. Soon we have one standard Desktop on Linux, no halfassed things like XFree with bad Athena widgets and crappy configuration. We will get a complete reworked XFree with GTK+/GNOME support and new standards of libraries. You can read more about the plans on either the Redhat Mailinglists or the XFree development lists. A couple of GNOME developers are working on it already.

    1. Re:Quick Info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh and to add this one. It's also planned to replace the existing configuration mechanism of XFree with GConf which was invented for GNOME. A Hightech configuration system for Unix and derivates that work similar, to say better, than Windows Registry. The concepts and operations although are equal. Read more about that here. GConf is Windows Registry done correctly.

    2. Re:Quick Info by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Thank god. I am so sick of switching between KDE and Gnome because one or the other doesn't like a certain app too much. (bugs in linux?!?! *GASP*)
      maybe next we'll get a standardized installation system (rpm is almost there...), and if we're REALLY GOD DAMN LUCKY, all software will have an alternate installer for it that includes all of its dependancies.

      While im on the subject of this, how mnay people do you hear complain about wasted space in W2k because of all programs having their own copy of previously(in other MS os's) shared DLLs and such? For christ's sake, include commonly used libs in the install, and include miscelaneous ones in software RPMs. If i've installed every fucking file from my 3 cd install set, i shouldn't have to search around the web for a whole fucking lot.

      --
      "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
    3. Re:Quick Info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      I heard that Redhat is planning to embedd librSVG...natively into XFree



      • 1. It's not RedHat, it's a former SuSE employee;
      • 2. it's a server extension;
      • 3. it's not SVG, although it can be used for rendering SVG. Or PDF. Or PostScript. Or whatever.

    4. Re:Quick Info by Arandir · · Score: 1

      Bad idea. Very bad idea. That's not what XFree86 is for. Plus, making it dependent upon GNOME is seriously jacked.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    5. Re:Quick Info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please change your source of information. You are wrong! Your reply is in no way related to above comment.

    6. Re:Quick Info by EzInKy · · Score: 2

      ...maybe next we'll get a standardized installation system...

      Gee, I thought... ./configure --options
      make
      make install ...worked on just about every system.

      --
      Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    7. Re:Quick Info by KeyserDK · · Score: 4, Informative

      This guy is clueless beyond imagination.. Anyway..

      The Xfree86 stuff he is getting riled up about is probably this
      While the gnome/gtk stuff is here and here
      How he mixed it together is - impressive.

      --
      still reading?
    8. Re:Quick Info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are writing out of context dude. Please get some background before replying. The stuff you posted is in no way related to the plans of integrate GNOME into XFREE.

    9. Re:Quick Info by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 0, Troll

      assuming you have the correct versions of [insert programs/libraries here] installed.... most of the time it does. (note the fact that i said 'most of the time', because due to badly written packages, sometimes it doesn't)

      and just in case you missed the fucking point of what is was saying: there needs to be a way to install linux software that requires a double click on a file, and perhaps a few clicks on [ok] dialouge boxes. This is the main reason i do not recommend linux to friends. As far as 'ease of use', its about equall to windows... but installing software/hardware and configuring system settings is a fucking rootcanal.

      your post is typical of the arogance of the linux comunity. You think that anyone who doesn't feel like memorizing dozzens of command line commands, options, switches, etc. is lazy or stupid. FUCK YOU! I don't want to have to reinvent the god damn wheel in order to install a god damn screensaver. I don't care about the power and versitility of the bash shell; i just want to browse the web and listen to mp3's.... and i shouldn't need a degree in computer science to do this. LET GO OF THE GOD DAMN PAST!!! THE COMMAND LINE DIED WHEN WINDOWS 3.1 WAS RELEASED!!! DEAL WITH IT!

      I really wish the nix community would quit trying to be leet and make an OS for the rest of us already.

      (oh, and in case anyone thinks im a newb, im currently in school for computers, have an A+, will soon have Net+ and w2k MCP, and i've been running linux for 6 months.)

      --
      "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
    10. Re:Quick Info by EzInKy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wow, I was half joking and you seem to be spoiling for a fight, lol.

      Linux is what you want it to be...you want a point and click OS with easy installs, no problem use KDE and front end to apt or rpm.

      But, since you are an A+ computer student, wouldn't you agree that it is important to understand what is going on underneath that pretty GUI to make all that magic happen?

      Let's suppose that you've graduated and have your degree. You land a lucrative job and are happily going about your work until all of sudden one day something goes wrong and your machine won't launch the desktop. What are you going to do?

      Now don't you think you'd look pretty silly having all that sheepskin hanging on your wall proclaiming you a computer expert, yet you can't even edit a simple command line script to fix your own computer?

      --
      Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
    11. Re:Quick Info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > This guy is clueless beyond imagination.. Anyway..

      No, he is a troll, and you are a fucking idiot.

    12. Re:Quick Info by Nodatadj · · Score: 1

      > I really wish the nix community would quit trying
      > to be leet and make an OS for the rest of us
      > already.

      So really, you're just jealous you can't hang with the big kids?

    13. Re:Quick Info by justsomebody · · Score: 2

      Interesting comment, if it would be posted as a "freshmans hopes" or discussing userland software.

      I agree, standard installer is good.

      but installing software/hardware and configuring system settings is a fucking rootcanal
      Hardware as I see is much simple to install in linux than in Windows. Off course I use only branded and mostly expensive hardware that's confirmed to be working with Linux, so no Softmodems or notebooks with 830 chipset.
      Software, well if it is in RPM then installing it in Mandrake or RH8 then it's simpler, otherwise I agree. ./configure
      make
      make install

      should not be used for typical installation, at least not for users, especially not for userland software, that's something I agree completely.

      LET GO OF THE GOD DAMN PAST!!! THE COMMAND LINE DIED WHEN WINDOWS 3.1 WAS RELEASED!!! DEAL WITH IT!
      A fairly newb comment. Try to use bash scripting with all his power sometimes and you'll notice one thing Windows never had command line, at least not decent one, DOS Command line was just a simple mockup, so command line has not died with GUI arrival, just the stupid mockups

      So if you're hoping to be stop being newb and become pro. Get with the program. Admin will (or better, should) never be restricted to GUI only. I admit that it's nice to click "do my server" and all is running. But better question is: Is it really running as you'd like it to run? Let's say apache, try to make a GUI that would enable admin to use it with all his power and be simple to use. Impossible, Webmin is the closest thing to that option.

      So, take my words to consideration. GUI is good but not really powerfull (if there's no option to click something, well you can't set that something and looking as Server parts are evolving there's always some options that can't be clicked). CLI is better but harder to learn and harder to use. If you can do something in GUI, do it, then use CLI to check and fine tune what you did with GUI.

      Next thing, read your last two sentences and try todecide what are you: anewb or a trying to be pro. I just couldn't figure it out

      --
      Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
    14. Re:Quick Info by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 1

      you make some very good points.

      I'd eventually like to learn all about the dirty underbelly of linux like i did with Windows, but there's too much information to learn all at once. I need to be fully functional in GUI before I feel confortable messing with the command line, that way I'll have an easy way to fix mistakes. I'm starting to think that people who call Linux intuative were born with a unix server as a conjoined twin.

      Seriously, why do i have to type -zxfv(yeah, i can alter bash aliases, but that has complications) every time i use tar? From what i read, its because tar was originally designed for tape backup operations. How much work would it be to rework this utility to not need certain options, and automatically detect which other options were needed? Tar can't be altered to detect wheter or not a file is gziped, or better yet, have gzip integrated into it?

      I guess my only option is to suck it up and start memorizing, but I don't like it. I don't think this is a very professional way to make an operating system targeted at the general public. CLI should enhance productivity by making things faster, and in some limited cases, add funcitonality. I shouldn't need to use bash on a regular basis.

      --
      "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
    15. Re:Quick Info by Arandir · · Score: 2

      I really wish the nix community would quit trying to be leet and make an OS for the rest of us already.

      Get a clue. We're not making an OS for you, we're making one for us! Get it? If you don't like it you can either become one of us, or make your own. Geez...

      (oh, and in case anyone thinks im a newb, im currently in school for computers, have an A+, will soon have Net+ and w2k MCP, and i've been running linux for 6 months.)

      Sounds like a newb to me... If you've got the skills, use them to improve freenix. Otherwise stop bitching about what we've sweated decades to make, and which we give to you for free.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    16. Re:Quick Info by be-fan · · Score: 2

      You know what they say, a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing!

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    17. Re:Quick Info by KewlPC · · Score: 2
      You don't need the -v option. It stands for "verbose", which is why tar prints all that stuff on the screen.If you want to know what's in the archive, use -ztf (the key here is the -t option, which makes tar tell you what's in the file).

      If you could actually read a man page, you'd know what the other options do. To make your life easy:
      • -z tells tar that the file you are trying to untar is compressed
      • -x tells tar that you are trying to untar the file, rather than add more files to it
      • -f tells tar that the archive should come from a file, rather than tape.


      So tar -zxf file.tar.gz means that tar should first run gunzip on file.tar.gz, then extract the files from file.tar instead of the tape drive.

      As for changing tar: it is still used by many people for backing up to tape. Is it really that hard to remember the -zxf ? Also, I don't think that gzip should be integrated with tar because not all tar archives are compressed with gzip. Ever see a .tar.Z file? They seem to be very common on Irix, and aren't compressed with gzip AFAIK.

      As for the use of a command line being unprofessional: no. The Unix command line is almost infinitely more powerful than the DOS command line. I like being able to do anything from the command line. I can't tell you how many times being able to remotely log into a machine to fix something and fix it from the command line (as opposed to being required to use a GUI for configuration) has saved my ass. You don't need to use the command line on a regular basis, though. Aside from when I'm programming or logged into one of my machines remotely, I don't use the command line as often as I thought I'd have to when I first switched all my machines at home to various *nixes. Unfortunately, many people migrate from Windows thinking Linux will be "like Windows, only better" or some miracle cure for all their computing woes. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, having bazillions of certifications doesn't make you computer knowledgeable, just ask anybody with an MCSE ;-) I hate to tell you this, but your A+ certification means zip to anyone outside of the PC repair world, except for those looking to get their MCSE afterwards.

      The thing I am constantly seeing when people switch to Linux or some other *nix who've been using DOS or Windows for a long time (indeed, it was a problem I suffered from when I was learning FreeBSD, the first *nix I was ever exposed to) is that their DOS and Windows knowledge actually hinders them to a certain degree. You're just going to have to deal with the fact that a lot of your DOS and Windows knowledge just doesn't apply in the *nix world, so "unlearn" it lest it hinder you. Unix "grew up" separately from Microsoft OSes, and the "Unix Way" of doing things, while sometimes very different from the "Windows Way", can actually make sense and be helpful if you take the time and effort to learn WHY it's done that way.

      I would be interested in knowing why you switched to Linux, why you think it is targetted at the general public (hint: it isn't, it's targetted at people who actually know how to use their computers and aren't afraid to learn new things), and what distribution you're using.
    18. Re:Quick Info by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Look out boys and girls, he's in *gasp* COMPUTER SCHOOL! He actually is taking a class to gain his computer knowledge?

      He has an A+ cert. That means he can repair a PC, but says nothing about any other computer knowledge he may or may not have!

      And oh no, he'll soon have his Win2k MCP! Even though he claims not to be a Unix newb, he lists one of the 2 certifications (MCSE being the other) that no self-respecting Unix user would have! Yay for him!

      Go get 'em, computer school boy!

    19. Re:Quick Info by justsomebody · · Score: 2

      You might try few things. Bash scripting guide (just type "bash" in search box on freshmeat.net)
      and use "man" more oftenly. There's really no specific reason to memorise all params. Use man when you need it at first. Next thing is you'll be typing that from your head.

      I guess my only option is to suck it up and start memorizing, but I don't like it.
      We all did that.

      I don't think this is a very professional way to make an operating system targeted at the general public.
      Wrong, this is a really professional way to make a server operating system. Main reason: admin should know exactly what is he setting up.
      But still go to: www.webmin.com and download tar.gz (much easyer to install than others), this should give your clicking need a boost.
      But for a desktop I agree it's not right.

      CLI should enhance productivity by making things faster, and in some limited cases, add funcitonality. I shouldn't need to use bash on a regular basis.
      Like everybody when starting, but it will come time when you'll find out that setting up complex server can be a matter of minutes instead of hours or days. Simple bash script, then Copy files and that's it.
      You don't need to use it on regular basis, but in time you will, if you'll just give it a go.

      --
      Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
  5. multimedia on my cell phone. by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    good thing: better quality picture of Pikachu doing the nasty with Snoopy on my cell phone. bad thing: Having pictures to go with annoying rings might increase the popularity of the really really god damn annoying rings. I swear to god, if i hear another cell phone imitating "its a hard knock life" i will kill. Oh, and since when do cellphone batteries hold enough juice to support more than 2 seconds of signifigant bandwith?

    --
    "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
  6. SVG by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    SVG is Scalable Vector Graphics. SVG is made in XML. It is easy to generate SVG. It is easy to export SVG. You can use SVG over the web like flash. You can use SVG to provide nice pretty scalable interfaces to web apps. SVG is more constrained and controlled than HTML. There is less likelyhood of incompatible features.

    http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Overview.htm8

    1. Re:SVG by 0x0d0a · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It would be even nicer if there were Linux graphic editors that could export SVG...

  7. Re:dang! by Killall+-9+Bash · · Score: 0, Troll

    wassamatter? AOL community forums get boring?

    --
    "Prediction: within 10 years, Windows will be a Linux distribution." Me, 7-6-2016
  8. SVG? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That doesn't have anything to do with the Caribbean country Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, does it?

  9. Linux implementations by raju · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The first place I would expect SVG to appear in is the browser. In Mozilla the beta SVG provided by Adobe does not work. Mozilla's own implementation[mozilla.org] is stuck due to licensing issues (LGPL vs MPL). When can we expect a decent one on our beloved platform? Windows users at least a decent one from Adobe.

    1. Re:Linux implementations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      What do you mean? Adobe's SVG plugin for Mozilla (Build 2002111113 and earlier) works fine for me. I've been doing Batik/SVG-development all autumn on Linux, and AdobeSVG is the main reason I'm still in business.

    2. Re:Linux implementations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Worked for me till i upgraded to mozilla 1.0

    3. Re:Linux implementations by n0-0p · · Score: 1

      Same for me.

    4. Re:Linux implementations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Adobe stopped SVG development and laid off everyone involved last spring.

    5. Re:Linux implementations by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Weird. Do you get any error messages? /usr/lib/mozilla-1.2b/plugins/libNPSVG3.so (symlink to /usr/local/lib/adobesvg-3.0/libNPSVG3.so) works fine for me.

  10. So is this going to replace Flash? by bogie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Flash is the dominant method used for interactive graphics on the web today. Websites, adverts, those little games, all have standardized on Flash. In fact although I wouldn't mind it, I can't picture the internet without Flash anymore.

    So my question as a non-developer is can SVG do everything Flash can? I didn't see anything about audio capabilities. Also does anyone think even if it can, are the tools there to make using SVG as good as the tools for making Flash graphics. Lastly is SVG a good working spec that won't be co-opted and ruined by some big company.

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    1. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by ergo98 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      SVG isn't going to replace Flash anymore than Flash is going to replace binary games (i.e. We're not going to play Doom 3 as a Flash game): Each has its place. Having said that, in some situations SVG will supplant Flash were it's a better choice: For instance for charts and graphs the vector graphics capabilities of SVG are absolutely first-rate, and it's unnecessary to resort to a proprietary tool such as Flash when dynamically generated XML will work stunningly. The SVG standard is extremely comprehensive even in its 1.0 form, so I don't see very many ways that it can be coopted by anyone.

    2. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The big difference between SVG and Flash is that SVG is an open specification, not one which is the property of a big company, Macromedia. Although there's never a guarantee that a big company will ruin its specification (HTML by Microsoft for example), it is not likely. SVG itself doesn't have audio capabilities, but SMIL has. In SVG you can incorporate SMIL to use audio. SVG has also some problems. It's XML, so it's text. This means that it can be quite a lot of data you have to send over the net. Or you can compress it (only zipping method which is supported by the 1.0 recommendation is gzip, this can have change), but then it should be decompressed. After this has been done, it should be parsed by the SVG viewer (like adobe's). Although there's still more support for SVG, there aren't much viewers available for SVG in browsers. Even Adobe's viewer hasn't been updated in a year! But on the longer term I'm sure SVG will be much larger than Flash. Macromedia was keen enough to jump in the hole when there was need for vector graphics. SVG came too late to make it as successfull as Flash instantly. I think the fact that Macromedia owns Flash, while SVG is an open, public standard, will make the difference.

    3. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      Again, SWF is an 'Open Standard' hence the php implementations, perl libs, etc. Macromedia only sells the premiere 'Authoring Tool' aka Flash. OSS could implement such a thing and could improve upon it by incorporating more robust scripting support.

      Well they could if they wanted to but most coders think SWF is demon-spawn.

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    4. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by bsartist · · Score: 2

      Again, SWF is an 'Open Standard'

      Documented, yes. Open, no. The SWF format is defined and owned by Macromedia.

      --
      Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
    5. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 3, Interesting

      SVG is getting wide adoption in mapping technologies. I used it to implement a selectable, zoomable map at work a few weeks ago. The XML base of it made it a lot easier than working with Flash would have been.

    6. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by uhoreg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      SVG doesn't have audio capabilities because audio isn't, well, vector graphics. You can add audio, though, by using SMIL, another W3C standard. Or you can once someone supports SMIL. (RealPlayer supports SMIL, but AFAIK not SVG.) I suppose you could also probably use some JavaScript stuff to get audio.

      --

      To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three persons, two of them absent.

    7. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by dublin · · Score: 2

      SVG has also some problems. It's XML, so it's text. This means that it can be quite a lot of data you have to send over the net.

      Don't assume that text is necessarily a negative here - I'm working on a project right now where this is a key attribute arguing for SVG: Because it's text-based, SVG is a usable option for very simple, stupid embedded web devices. This allows temperature graphs or controls to be easily created by tiny 8-bit embedded microcontrollers, something that's not really computationally practical with Flash's computationally bloated binary format.

      Not everything connected to the Internet is a PC. In fact we're rapidly approaching the point where most of the interesting things on the net won't be PCs. SVG can be very good for those, and it's status as a true web standard makes it a far better choice than Flash as a long-term investment.

      --
      "The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last ./ post
    8. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by smallpaul · · Score: 2

      SVG isn't going to replace Flash anymore than Flash is going to replace binary games (i.e. We're not going to play Doom 3 as a Flash game): Each has its place.

      What's Flash's natural place? Why couldn't SVG evolve to replace it?

    9. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      SVG is a vector graphics standards with dynamic DOM style elements intended to work in concert with other W3C web standards. It isn't intended to be a super, all-encompassing multimedia solution, as Flash strives for. Don't get me wrong here: I personally find that about 98% of the uses of Flash on the web are absolutely atrocious, and represent pure arrogance and ignorance of some web developers ("look at how COOL my intro page is! Look scrolling text! Techno music!"). However I truly believe that Flash and SVG are targeting separate uses and markets.

    10. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by smallpaul · · Score: 2

      SVG is a vector graphics standards with dynamic DOM style elements intended to work in concert with other W3C web standards. It isn't intended to be a super, all-encompassing multimedia solution, as Flash strives for.

      SVG works in concert with a language called "Simple Multimedia Integration Languge" which does allow the integration of various media types into an "all-encompassing multimedia solution." When you combine the stack of W3C standards and extrapolate it does look to me like the set is on target to replace Flash.

    11. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      By the same token SVG works in concert with HTML, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to say that SVG therefore is looking to replace Adobe Acrobat (though the complete solution may very well). SVG is a vector graphic addition to the standards compilation, basically, and while using it in concert with other standards allows for a Flash "like" solution, SVG fills a vector graphic gap in the web technology grab bag.

    12. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by smallpaul · · Score: 2

      By the same token SVG works in concert with HTML, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to say that SVG therefore is looking to replace Adobe Acrobat (though the complete solution may very well).

      You are incorrect. There is a working group for SVG-in-print that is looking at SVG fulfilling tasks that overlap heavily with PDF.

      SVG is a vector graphic addition to the standards compilation, basically, and while using it in concert with other standards allows for a Flash "like" solution, SVG fills a vector graphic gap in the web technology grab bag.

      Fine. The point is that the emerging stack could add up to a competitor to Flash so that Flash would be replaced as various hypertext formats were replaced by HTML and its associated standards.

    13. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by ergo98 · · Score: 1

      Fine. The point is that the emerging stack could add up to a competitor to Flash so that Flash would be replaced as various hypertext formats were replaced by HTML and its associated standards.

      Let me put it another way: Those who see these technologies as black and white "Which little square hole can I fit it into" will only be disappointed if they look for simplistic existing roles that it can replace. SVG is a powerful relatively new standard adding a lot of power to the web standards body. Looking at it as a "How does this replace Flash?" will only lead to completely incorrect comparisons where it is diminished for every failing that it has against Flash while ignored for every superiority. I suppose it's the nature of the beast that people will always try to simplify these things though in ways that people can understand. HTML is just a competitor to Postscript though, right?

    14. Re:So is this going to replace Flash? by smallpaul · · Score: 2

      I'll finish this discussion with a URL. It looks alot like the kind of thing most people do in flash.

      http://www.melmcgee.com/cgi-bin/texis/index?conten tid=3dd3380e47
  11. svg-capable apps? by CoughDropAddict · · Score: 2

    Any unix apps around that will let you do interesting things with svgs? Like, VIEW them even? Why no mozilla support, even though a freely available implementation has been available since May 2001?

    SVG looks uber-cool, but there doesn't seem to be much supporting software.

    1. Re:svg-capable apps? by sjbrown · · Score: 3, Interesting
      For simple viewing, there's librsvg, but for really fun stuff, there's Sodipodi

      (among others, I'm sure)

    2. Re:svg-capable apps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Batik is a wonderful application for many SVG activities. Runs just about anywhere.

    3. Re:svg-capable apps? by wombatmobile · · Score: 2, Interesting
      SVGmaker generates SVG from standard Windows apps using File/print, like you do with Acrobat to make PDF.

      But SVG is more compact. For example, this PowerPoint presentation is 140kb as compressed SVG, compared to the original PPT which was 950kb.

    4. Re:svg-capable apps? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Adobe has an SVG plugin for Mozilla.

  12. Bitboys by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now, just let us see the Bitoys wonders come alive! They have an SVG hardware rendering minigraphic card for mobile phones ready any time soon. (Well, we have heard that one before...)

  13. Re:We will never mix with your kind! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uhm - what's up ? I totally welcome the unifying process of XFree and GNOME to be one System. The current target to make this possible is highly welcome. If you don't like this then go and fork XFree and make something own out of it. The direction this to happen has been decided already between the GNOME team, Redhat and the XFree people.

  14. Re:OT: Gates honored with big condom by Annoyed+Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Now he has a condom, worth 100m$. :-D

    --
    Hmmm... Ok.. Chivas on the rocks.
  15. Some samples I found here by bogie · · Score: 2

    http://www.adobe.com/svg/demos/samples.html

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
  16. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here... by DraconPern · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's good that a new recommendation is coming out, but people are still trying to get SVG 1.0 right.

    For example, try http://www.croczilla.com/svg with your stock IE, mozilla or netscape 6. It doesn't work.

    Adobe has an example to show their attempt at http://www.adobe.com/svg/demos/css_layout which only works in IE. But it takes up more CPU power to fade a new squares than flash does.

    I am not sure if the world is ready for 1.0 much less 1.1.

    1. Re:Let's not get ahead of ourselves here... by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      I agree SVG needs to be embedded in the VRAM chipset the way that OpenGL has been. It is every bit as process intensive via multiple matrix transformations albeit in a 2D space. So who want to start writing the OSS SVG GPU drivers?

      Barring that SVG needs more than a browser 'plugin'.

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    2. Re:Let's not get ahead of ourselves here... by ActiveSX · · Score: 1

      Uhh, sounds a bit over-complex. Why not just implement the SVG renderer in OpenGL?

    3. Re:Let's not get ahead of ourselves here... by be-fan · · Score: 2

      Amaya, the w3c browser is actually trying to do just that.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    4. Re:Let's not get ahead of ourselves here... by chris_lilley · · Score: 1

      At first sight, this a great comment. Why add all those new features if SVG 1.0 is not implemented 100% ?

      But then reality strikes. SVG 1.1 adds not a single new attribute, element or method. It modularises SVG 1.0, is all.

      SVG Tiny and SVG Mobile are profiles (subsets) of SVG. They are mainly intended for the Mobile industry - SVG Tiny on cellphones, SVG Basic on PDAs. And there are five Tiny and three basic implementations that I am aware of.

      But these profiles also give a series of steps that new SVG implementations can take in turn. Instead of releasing a first version of an implementation that implements some random selection of features based on change or best guesses, a first implementation can go for SVG Tiny. Then in the next version it can add stuff like gradients and opacity and scripting and go for SVG Basic before finally biting off the rest of the stuff like complex filters andf going for SVG 1.1 Full, which is the exact same as SVG 1.0

      So, the first step in not getting ahead of ourselves is to take a glance at the actual specs before commenting ....

      About the CPU power - in the SWF format from macromedia, there is a fixed frame rate. So, your desktop gives you only that framerate (though it could do better) and the high end PDA gives you that framerate and the low end PDA or cellphone would presumably curl up in smoke or dump core or take eight times as long to play it in agonising slomo, or something. In SVG, the animation is declarative so you can play it at the best framerate that your device can give (like video games, the better your machine the smoother the animation).

      There does need to be some way to throttle back the animation though, I agree, just like the difference in a video game between 100fps and 500fps would be better spent doing something else.

      --
      Chris Lilley W3C spec creation droid
  17. Nice to se Mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not buckling to the GPL virus.

    1. Re:Nice to se Mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Corel just released an SVG viewer preview last week.

  18. All this new and fancy stuff... by BigWhale · · Score: 1, Redundant

    I would give anything to go back to the html... All those new features... I would like to see html 2.0 and tables and that's it! People don't need anything else to put stuff on the web... Now you got all that fancy stuff, flash,... animateg gifs (ok, those could be tolerated) and all those things that make your browser choke and spit...

    Use those 'new' shinny stuff somewhere else... We need something simple... I know that html alone is simple, but do we really need so many extension to it? Graphics, scripts, animations, whoknowswhatelse, FSCK! I need something that I can use to read HOWTO's and FAQ's and sometimes /.

    Ah well.. I'll go back to bed.. feverish again.... ;)

    --
    The Sig, the sig
    1. Re:All this new and fancy stuff... by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      While you're at it why don't you throw out the computer and just handwrite all your snail mail and take three week trips to visit a museum somewhere. Turn on talk radio and live it up with out those 'fancy' moving pictures we call TV. I love reading a good book as much as the next guy but i also appreciate a well thought out (key), GUI that expedites my acquistion of knowledge and or goods.

      Besides HTML is ugly.

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    2. Re:All this new and fancy stuff... by marauder · · Score: 1

      Hey listen, buddy! Some of us have diagrams, charts and equations we'd like to display. At the moment I have to do that by having HTML with hundreds of little graphics inlined everywhere I use a math symbol or anything else that's not text. I would give anything to go to SVG. So would readers of papers on my website, both humans and spiders.

    3. Re:All this new and fancy stuff... by foniksonik · · Score: 2

      You should try embedding a symbol font link into the page and provid a download for the font library (assuming your viewers are insular and you have a nice royalty free symbol library).

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    4. Re:All this new and fancy stuff... by BigWhale · · Score: 1

      Ah, but you missed the point... HTML was created to present the same content on multiple platforms and different kinds of user agents (try SVG or Flash on Braille terminal) and now it's everything except that...

      True, it could be what it wanted to be, but it is not, blame the creators that don't write proper code, blame the useragents that don't render the code correctly... It doesn't matter it is not what was supposed to be...

      And BTW, TV and Radio both successfully deliver news to me... Some flashy web page fails to do that, because I simply close the damned thing... Oh and with TV, you can still turn off the picture and just listen to it, most of the time, if you turn off Flash you will lose like 95% of the functionality... Which sucks...

      --
      The Sig, the sig
    5. Re:All this new and fancy stuff... by DarkVein · · Score: 2

      Heh. You'll like XHTML 2.0. XHTML 2.0 only deals with the markup of information for contextual representation. Paragraphs, lists, lines, links, and tables. Oh, and objects /> has been banished. All the presentational stuff is done with CSS. Check out the W3C's core stylesheets project. The object tag allows you to fall-through to the least-prefered format for an information object svg->flash->png->gif->text, if you like. Neat stuff.

      --

      I'm as mimsy as the next borogove but your mome raths are completely outgrabe.

  19. SVG vs. Flash by Cheese+Cracker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's a great page that compares SVG vs. Flash.

    Here's two good reasons why you want to implement SVG instead of Flash:

    SVG is a standard, Flash is proprietary.
    SVG can be indexed and searched, Flash can't.

    1. Re:SVG vs. Flash by tshak · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Here's one good reason why you'd want to implement Flash instead of SVG: SVG is Slooow.

      Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about the possibilities for quick and _relatively static_ XML based graphic generation. But for an extremely slow animation SVG hogs my CPU @100% on an Athlon 1.2Ghz.

      --

      There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
    2. Re:SVG vs. Flash by BitwizeGHC · · Score: 1

      Flash has Radiskull and Homestar Runner firmly in its camp. SVG doesn't.

      Oh, and the SWF format is an open standard.

      --
      N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
    3. Re:SVG vs. Flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That will improve with better viewers.

    4. Re:SVG vs. Flash by Khalid · · Score: 5, Informative

      > Here's one good reason why you'd want to implement Flash instead of SVG: SVG is Slooow.

      I am not sure what this really means. This is like saying XML is slow, or better HTML is slow. SVG is a standard, you will have slow, and quick implementations, maybe current implementation have not been really optimised yet, but there is no real reason SVG might be intrinscly slow

    5. Re:SVG vs. Flash by FooBarWidget · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You mean Flash isn't slow? The Flash plugin it takes 10 to 20 seconds to load, and when it's finally loaded, it hogs 90-100% CPU! And I'm using an Athlon 1.4 Ghz.

    6. Re:SVG vs. Flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      10 to 20 seconds to load? Something must be wrong with your system cause it shouldn't take that long. Now the movies can take forever to load because a lot of people make bad flash movies.

    7. Re:SVG vs. Flash by tshak · · Score: 2

      This is like saying XML is slow.

      Well, it is, and that's what I'm saying. XML is slow. Don't get me wrong, I use XML all the time - just not to generate animated vector graphics. Binary will always win on the performance front, and intensive graphics applications still need all the performance that it can get.

      --

      There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips
    8. Re:SVG vs. Flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      your CPU is 16 months old. Get a new one. this will solve your speed problems.

    9. Re:SVG vs. Flash by KidSock · · Score: 2

      Here's two good reasons why you want to implement SVG instead of Flash:

      SVG is a standard, Flash is proprietary.
      SVG can be indexed and searched, Flash can't.


      Man I don't know spit about Flash or SVG and I didn't read your link but I'm willing to bet that SVG couldn't touch Flash with a 10 foot pole.

    10. Re:SVG vs. Flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i'd think of a decent response to this, but i'm too tempted to just say: HA HA!

    11. Re:SVG vs. Flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Flash is an IDE and plug-in

      the SWF format is open - there are a range of products for generating SWF's. There are even products for generating SVG from SWF's.

    12. Re:SVG vs. Flash by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here is a third: because SVG is XML, it is much easier to generate it dynamically on the server.

      For example, you can generate SVG using Java Server Pages (JSP), and you can transform another XML document to SVG using XSLT. Apache FOP, for instance, supports SVG targets out of the box.

  20. Why discuss a proposed recommendation? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why the ding dong are we discussing a 'proposed' recommendation? Wait until it gets to the recommendation phase at least. It could be months before it gets to that stage.

    1. Re:Why discuss a proposed recommendation? by chris_lilley · · Score: 1

      Anonymous Coward wrote: It could be months before it gets to that stage

      The stages in the lifecycle of a Standards Track W3C specification are:

      • first working draft
      • second, etc, working drafts
      • Last Call working draft (where it gets widespread review)
      • Candidate Recommendation (where it gets implementation experience)
      • Proposed Recommendation (last check, for about six weeks)
      • Recommendation

      So it is being discussed because Proposed Recommendation means it has exited last call - which means there are multiple interoperable implementations and a test suite. Which means you can use it, now.

      --
      Chris Lilley W3C spec creation droid
  21. SVG VS FLASH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    SVG can do more than flash. The only reason why everyone is not using SVG right now is because there are no "flash like" tools. SVG doesn't need to be "frame" bound like flash and has a better scripting language than flash (emcascript or javascript).

    So SVG is better than flash, will be better than flash but currently it's tools are immature to compete head to head with flash but for instance if Macromedia was smart they'd provide SVG exporting of their flash stuff s.t they won't be thrown out of the market due to a new file format. Oh and don't trust the whack jobs supporting that PHP swf file format thing. That's a dead end, it's time to rely on something open.

    1. Re:SVG VS FLASH by foniksonik · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Flashscript is no longer the end-all be-all for swf format. FlashRemote supports many server side languages and has excellent support for XML and SQL.

      I have been intrigued by SVG ever since it made it's appearance on the scene but the SVG guys seriouly need to make a leg and get moving on authoring tools which support the full gamut of capabilities, ie: this hand coding crap just won't fly in a work flow process or even for JoeAverage doing something for school.

      Anyways Adobe has an SVG plugin and you can export any vector + variables + code from illustrator and GoLive as SVG. Still not an authoring tool like Flash though. Macromedia bought and innovated their way to the top of multimedia authoring a while ago and Adobe is still playing catch up in a lot of ways (coming along nicely though).

      --
      A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
    2. Re:SVG VS FLASH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No it can't. If you look at Flash 6/MX you'll see that SVG doesn't even compare. Plus ActionScript (Flash's scripting language) is based off of ECMAScript. In fact you can pretty much cut-n-paste JavaScript/ECMAScript into Flash and have it work.

      Unless SVG is bundled with SMIL or other formats there is no way that SVG can eer match all of Flash's capabilities.

    3. Re:SVG VS FLASH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SVG has SMIL and has more animation options than flash.

      Actionscript is not emcascript, actionscript wants to be emcascript.

    4. Re:SVG VS FLASH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you've never developed anything more than a toy app in either Flash or SVG have you ?

  22. Interesting by ekrout · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Last week, I left my 2 Windows XP CDs on my dashboard in plain view.

    Someone broke into my car and left 2 more.

    --

    If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
  23. SVG for OSS Fonts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    SVG could be used for fonts, am I right? I believe there is something in the SVG spec so that it can be used as a font. If not, how about adding something so that it could.

    Providing the above is true or is added so it becomes true, we have to get some good OS/FS fonts. How about converting the Type1 xfree86 fonts since they're a vector font. Then maybe we can get some people to convert the bitmap fonts into a vector font. Don't know how feasable this is, but we're all still pretty reliant on MS for its "free" fonts (for TrueType I mean).

    1. Re:SVG for OSS Fonts by wombatmobile · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Embedded vector fonts are part of the SVG specification.

      Here's an example.

      To create SVG fonts, print anything with SVGmaker.

      The free demo creates fonts you can reuse in your own SVG doc.

  24. XML sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Am I the only one to think that XML is an abomination?

    1. Re:XML sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes!

  25. SVG Plugin from Corel by schepers · · Score: 2, Informative

    Last week, Corel announced a preview plugin (Windows only, for now), so Adobe isn't the only game in town.
    They also have a gallery with some neat SVG samples.

  26. Will this be supported by lynx? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    heh. Now those banner ads will really annoy the fuck out of you.

  27. Re:Awesome-Adobe-Mozilla, no go. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "See batik [apache.org]for an apache implementation of it and some examples (quite nice ones) , and adobe provides a nice viewer for the svg too.. "

    Problem is that it doesn't work with the latest Mozilla builds. I've been thinking of adopting Batik, but it seems quite a bit of work.

  28. SVG + script = Enterprise web app by wombatmobile · · Score: 4, Interesting
    An SVG document can be UI for enterprise applications integration.

    For example, start with this static picture generated from a CAD program.

    add some simple polygons and script them to conform with some business logic. Connect to your enterprise applications and databases using various connectors (simulated here) and you get a UI component like this that integrates with HTML.

    Click on components to select them.

    Ctrl-Click to select a set of components. Move your mouse over the colored components to highlight data in the html table.

    Type a number in at the top right [enter] to see if you have enough components available for manufacturing.

    This example was coded by hand in a day and a half. Probably could do another one in 3 hours or so now we got the hang of it.

  29. Patented technology by Citizen+of+Earth · · Score: 2

    I had heard some rumors that SVG contained patented technology with which some organization was not going to play nice. Is this true? Or is SVG royalty-free?

    1. Re:Patented technology by chris_lilley · · Score: 1

      The thing with rumours is that, like sex, you should check past history before sharing with someone new.

      Short verson SVG is Royalty Free

      Longer verson SVG is Royalty Free and here is why ...

      The SVG Working group is chartered to be a Royalty Free working group. It was the first one at W3C, in fact. That did mean, though, that we asked all members of the working group for their license terms on patents that they might not even know they had ;-) which scared some people at the time of the Big RAND Wars which slashdotters will remember ... its seems that reading "company X has US patent 12345 and gives the following royalty free license" or "company Y has no patents and gives a RAND license to them" etc was too confusing.

      So we simplified and clarified. In the SVG 1.1 and Mobile SVG specs you will find a link fromthe 'Status of this Document' to the patent page. There is one patent number there, from Kodak, along with a legal statement from Kodak that it is not needed for implementing SVG. We still have to tell people about it, of course, since they told us.

      So yes, SVG is Royalty Free

      --
      Chris Lilley W3C spec creation droid
  30. Re:All this new and fancy stuff...A new hope. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ahh! But the nice thing about all the things coming up, is that maybe, just maybe. The web will be made whole again. Freed from the Microsoft-Netscape scism. Not only that, it has the oppertunity to live up to what was originally envisioned for it. A means of communication available for all, blind to sighted. Gifted to common. There's still a great deal of work to be done, and many "detractors" to be watched. Sleep well...feverish one.

  31. Re:SVG vs. Flash-GOAT.CX LINK-WARNING!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THE ABOVE (#4684580)IS A GOAT.CX LINK.

  32. No, SVG is real now by wombatmobile · · Score: 5, Informative
    The 1.0 spec has been out for yonks already and there's an active SVG developer community out there.

    Adobe has been distributing SVG viewer as part of the Acrobat 5 download for over a year now.

    Nobody's waiting for Microsoft to innovate SVG or do their XDocs whatever thing; check these static examples generated from MS apps with SVGmaker: Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Project

    For building SVG web applications its true that there aren't comprehensive IDE tools available yet, but that hasn't stopped developers from creating some definitive web apps with simple home grown tools (starting with a text editor since SVG is just XML).

    Like this interactive logical diagram

    Check this awesome mapping example

    And this wonderful airport flight management app.

    1. Re:No, SVG is real now by hemna · · Score: 1

      There is an SVG library for php at phpHtmlLib.newsblob.com
      It currently supports building W3C SVG 1.0 compliant "images", as well as fully compliant XML/HTML/XHTML and WML documents and complex html 'widgets'

  33. Magnificent Airport Management Example by wombatmobile · · Score: 1
    Sorry, I got the URL wrong for Hugh Enxing's magnificent airport management example.

    It is really here.

    This is so good!

  34. Magnificent airport management example by wombatmobile · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Sorry, I got the URL wrong for Hugh Enxing's magnificent airport management example.

    It is really here

    This is so good!

  35. Like PDF but its XML by wombatmobile · · Score: 5, Informative
    SVG is an image format that can faithfully reproduce a document display context, same like PDF but since SVG is XML you can mark it up by hand in a text editor, script it, transform it, integrate it directly with HTML or whatever you like. And no monopoly controls it.

    This is a shameless plug but we are only 5 guys working out of a house, not a monopoly... (yet... ho ho ho). In the same way that Acrobat can generate PDF out of anything, SVGmaker can generate SVG out of Windows apps.

    These are examples.

    1. Re:Like PDF but its XML by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ya know, the download page at svgmaker is incredibly hard to read. Tiny, bright green text on a white background is a bad idea. Just to make things worse (I presume), it's a bitmap, so you can't even select the text to read it.

      I mean what's the point of using SVG if you're just gonna do stupid pixel-exact layout? Haven't you ever heard of CSS?

    2. Re:Like PDF but its XML by bcrowell · · Score: 2
      What you're doing is great! Good for you!

      But...

      you can mark it up by hand in a text editor
      Well, the last thing I'd normally want to do is create a drawing by marking it up in text using an editor. That's what drawing software is for. This is a little like complaining that ELF is a bad format because it's not easily editable. The way I produce PDF is by converting editable versions (EPS and TeX) into PDF. The way you produce ELF files is by converting the editable version (C) into ELF.

      And no monopoly controls it.
      Well, PDF is much better supported in open-source software than SVG is. I can click on a PDF hyperlink in Mozilla, and it displays it for me. I can produce PDF from TeX source code using pdftex.

      Anyhow, isn't the whole comparison inappropriate? PDF is meant for articles, books, and so on.

  36. ps2svg.ps by r6144 · · Score: 1

    I have found such a PS file somewhere that can somewhat convert PostScript files to SVG. I have tried it on some graphics I created with MetaPost. It works except for the fonts, although the process is far from polished, so it is not for normal users.

  37. Sodipodi by cyba · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sodipodi uses SVG as its native file format.

  38. Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least it's not Vile Microsoft Language (or something like that)

  39. Security by tetro · · Score: 1

    It's great that SVG is XML based and supports scripting and such. Question is, what will be done in terms of security?

    --
    .smell my feet.
  40. pointless until widely supported in browsers by g4dget · · Score: 2
    SVG is a better standard than Flash because it's text based and much easier to manipulate. However, Flash has the authoring tools that web designers use and it ships with almost every browser, whether you want it or not.

    The lack of authoring tools for SVG may actually turn out to be an advantage. People doing Flash seem to be mostly using it for things that are very annoying to users, and they are often not doing it very well (that flashing, blinking web interface doesn't resize, for example). SVG may turn out to be a better and more acceptable format for vector graphics than Flash precisely because the people who shouldn't use it don't know how to anyway (of course, that blessed state will not last long--if it catches on, Macromedia will output SVG, too).

    But until SVG becomes supported out of the box, with no plugins, by IE and Mozilla, it won't catch on much. Microsoft may support SVG in IE just to spite Macromedia--let's hope so. But it is incomprehensible to me why Mozilla has been so slow to offer SVG support: it already has all the XML parsing and graphics primitives built in--why is SVG support so difficult?

    1. Re:pointless until widely supported in browsers by Queuetue · · Score: 2, Informative

      SVG actually is supported quite nicely in mozilla. It's not on in the default builds, though, due to licensing issues with the libart library. (It's LGPL only, Moz is MPL/GPL/LGPL)

    2. Re:pointless until widely supported in browsers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Random point: the LGPL issue is only at odds with the MPL; the LGPL explicitly states that you may take LGPL'd code and release it as GPL.

    3. Re:pointless until widely supported in browsers by chris_lilley · · Score: 2, Interesting

      SVG support has been a difficult issue in Mozilla because of the rich canvas. As you say, the XML parser and DOM and CSS parser and inheritance and XLink simple linking and JPEG and PNG and ECMAscript are there already.

      The Mozilla SVG project started off by using Raph Levien's rendering library libart, which is only licensed to be used under the terms of the LGPL and not the standard Mozilla MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license.

      So, that licensing issue held up getting SVG code into the trunk, and when it was in ther trunk, stopped it being in the core builds (it was there in CVS and could be enabled at compile time). It worked on Linux, MacOS, Windows, etc - it was very cross platform code but there was the licensing issue.

      A new approach is to split the rendering code into platform-independent and platform-dependent parts. A test of this approach is available from the croczilla site (which has a bunch of great examples too) - there is a build that uses the GDI+ renderer suplied with Windows 2000/XP. Clearly, this avoids the license issue o the rendering library and clearly, it means there needs to be a separate platform layer for each supported OS (darwin on MacOS X, perhaps different linux layers for Gnome or KDE, etc)

      I know the Netscape folks are aware of this, too, because I visited Netscape and gave them a demo which included Mozilla SVG among other things.

      --
      Chris Lilley W3C spec creation droid
    4. Re:pointless until widely supported in browsers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you've never developed anything in SVG have you ?

  41. hope not by ExEleven · · Score: 1

    I hope my new iBook never gets infested (when i get it).

  42. Missing something? by Tokerat · · Score: 2

    Everyone is talking about how SVG makes for a nice interactive site and will replace Flash/etc. as a nice defined standard. But what about audio? I didnt' see it mentioned in the specs... Of course SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics, but what will be done to handle synchronized audio on a web site? Will the old DOM and JavaScript take care of this? What about if I want an SVG-pure page?

    Or am I missing something blatantly obvious in the specs?

    --
    CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    1. Re:Missing something? by Queuetue · · Score: 1

      Browsers already know how to handle audio tags...

      See here for an SVG pong game that uses audio.

    2. Re:Missing something? by chris_lilley · · Score: 1

      SVG 1.1 is just a modularized version of SVG 1.1, so that the SVG Tinad SVG Basic profiles can be built. It does not add new features.

      The first working draft of SVG 1.2 was also released today, and asks for feedback about including audio:
      http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG12/#SMIL

      There are already SVG implementatons that have experimental ausio support in their own namespace, for example the Adobe viewer and the CSIRO PocketPC viewer, so that prototypes one way to do it (as an audio element to SVG)

      <audio xlink:href="whatever" volume="50">

      XSmiles shows a different approach - use SMIL and SVG each in their own naespace.

      Feedback on which methodis best would be welcome, to

      mailto:www-svg@w3.org

      actually deciding to include audio, one way or another is easy, everyone wants that, its a question of what syntax to use.

      The other issue is the format. In SVG, unlike HTML, there are required formats on the image element - JPEG, PNG, and SVG itself of course. For audio, should we

      - require one particular format
      - require several formats
      - not say anything

      the issue being that the most popular format, MP3, is not royalty free. Ogg Vorbis is an option, but not all platforms support that and for mobile, there is not really room to add audio code. The SVG mobile players will likely just use an operating system call to do that. So, its a tricky decision.

      --
      Chris Lilley W3C spec creation droid
  43. Relax everyone... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is clearly a troll. :) As far as I know (and I follow those lists closely) noone has ever proposed something silly like this.

    He's trying to get you worked up, and has been at least partially successful. :)

  44. Re:Adobe SVG/Moz Plugin works fine for me... by Filter · · Score: 1

    AdobeSVG plugin for Mozilla on linux works fine for me.

    Filter
    .

    --

    "better ways of doing things eventually just replace the inferior things" - Linus Torvalds 09-08-07

  45. Re:Adobe SVG/Moz Plugin works fine--with segfaults by haloscan · · Score: 1

    It segfaulted the browser (Phoenix--Mozilla based) in 5 out of the 7 SVG links I clicked on from the front page.

  46. WARNING: PARENT IS A GOATSE LINK by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you've been warned.