Firefox 1.1 Plans Native SVG Support

Spy Hunter writes "The Scalable Vector Graphics format has yet to take off on the web, perhaps due to a small installed base of SVG-enabled browsers. That could soon change as the latest Firefox 1.1 nightly builds have started coming with native SVG support compiled in and enabled by default. If this feature makes into the Firefox 1.1 release (which is not certain, but likely, as the developers want it to happen) it will increase the number of web users who have an SVG renderer installed. But perhaps more interesting than that is the possibility of mixing SVG graphic elements directly into the markup of regular XHTML pages, freeing vector graphics from the small rectangle of a browser plugin and opening up a host of exciting new possibilities for web developers. This is enabled by the integration of SVG directly into the Gecko rendering engine, instead of as a browser plugin. With such a useful web developer feature available only in Firefox, could we soon start seeing websites asking their users to download Firefox to get the best browsing experience?"

Comments

Opera

[Anonymous Coward]

Opera 8.0 has support for SVG-tiny. The question is - what does SVG full have which SVG tiny does not?

What is SVG?

[catisonh]

Can someone explain to me why its better than a jpg?

Re:failure to take off

[Naikrovek]

I don't think Flash's existence has anything to do with the non-existance of SVG content. I think the lack of content comes from the lack of viewing methods.

SVG is not just another vector-based image format, it is scriptable, patent-free, open source, and now built into Firefox. Yes, I know Flash is scriptable too...

with XMLHttp, SVG, and the latest nightlies of Firefox, I've been able to create dashboard programs very easily, with "guages", "warning lights", and all the stuff that my management wants to see in a simple easy to understand manner, all with open source software, and a little effort on my part.

It won't be that easy to get it implemented at my employer, but I was able to do it all in a couple hours without Flash.

I'm happy for Flash and SVG to coexist. I'm sure that they can live happily together.

Re:SVG soon widely supported?

[Eric Pierce]

> Opera 8.0 supports SVG, and so will IE7

IE will support SVG natively or via Adobe's horribly outdated SVG plugin?

Please provide a reference link.

Accept Header

[fulldecent]

When I loaded this page, Firefox uses the request header:

Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,tex t/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5

Will the new version prefer SVG in that accept header, or will SVG fall after png, in the q=0.5 category?

I'm askng because in certain software projects I work with, I use content negotiation to deliver the image format the user wants [PLUG: http://fdcl.sourceforge.net/] and that lets them decide if they can handle PNG or they must use the crummy gif equivalent. Firefox specifically prefers png, so that wins. I'm sure this would be the only method that SVG's are delivered to Firefox, since nobody wants to put a file onto a website that will never be seen.