Apple to Adopt KDE4's KDOM and KSVG2?

Anonymous Coward writes "According to Eric Seidel, Apple WebCore developer, Safari may soon have 'experimental SVG support.' He ported KDE's new DOM architecture KDOM as well as their Scaleable Vector Graphics (SVG) implementation KSVG2 and render tree library KCanvas to WebCore. A new section devoted to SVG is also up on the WebCore site. Does this all mean that SVG will now go mainstream, finally?"

Comments

Without Adobe's support?

[BadMrMojo]

Now that Adobe has bought out Macromedia (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/18/13552 33&tid=98), I'd be surprised to see them helping push SVG any more.

As much as I'd love to be proven wrong, I think SVG headed for historical footnote status in the very near future.

Re:It's Apple. It's not mainstream.

[xoboots]

Think harder homer. When PDF hit the world, there was no CSS, no HTML, nothing in fact, except for proprietary page layout software and word processors. It filled a gap that others still have a hard time filling because it did it so well. On the other hand, one has to wonder if it would have the same impact if it was released today rather than back when. Indeed, who can offer an alternative to PDF at this point? Microsoft is about to try -- and considering their weight, they actually have a chance. Otherwise, the PDF argument is rather specious. As is the Java argument (how many websites deploy content/behaviours with Java?) and so many others that are being offered.

Lets compare like-to-like. TFA is talking about SVG becoming mainstream in relation to it being included in a browser. As we already know, there are plugins for SVG for almost every browser on every platform yet it is decidedly not mainstream yet. What is the major difference between Flash and PDF and SVG? Flash and PDF were earlier to market and are also proprietary (read single vendor) solutions.

So enough with the non-sequitors -- SVG needs IE adoption for success as does every web standard. To say otherwise is to support a rather uncommon view of the word "mainstream".

Re:It's Apple. It's not mainstream.

[node 3]

You're being foolish--the question at hand is whether something must be supported natively by MS to become a standard.

This is clearly and obviously not true.

If SVG is different, and that it *does* need such support, it's up to you to explain why.

Think harder homer. When PDF hit the world, there was no CSS, no HTML, nothing in fact, except for proprietary page layout software and word processors.

You are absolutely wrong, and clearly have a limited understanding of the subject. You're thinking of PostScript.

As we already know, there are plugins for SVG for almost every browser on every platform yet it is decidedly not mainstream yet.

But something has changed--Apple is going to support SVG. If this comes to pass, there will be more SVG content on the web. It's possible (but not certain) that the sites that add SVG content will be enough to get Windows users to click the "get plugin" button. Also, I believe, Firefox has, or will have, native support for SVG built-in as well.

SVG needs IE adoption for success as does every web standard.

Like PDF, Real, QuickTime, Java, etc?

To say otherwise is to support a rather uncommon view of the word "mainstream".

You're the one with the flawed definition. Mainstream means it's in the common public realm. Firefox *is* mainstream, for example. Mainstream does not mean everyone uses it, or even that a majority of the populace uses it. Rap, for example, is mainstream, but that doesn't mean everyone listens to it. DVD's and CD's were mainstream long before the majority of content was sold in those formats.

In the end, you might be right that Apple adopting SVG won't be enough to take SVG mainstream, but there are just far too many examples of web technologies that have become mainstream without direct support in IE to take your argument seriously.

SVG used in other places.

[torpor]

There are lots of other places to use SVG besides on the Web.


I count 15 SVG-capable Cell Phones at my local cell-mart, actually.

It seems to me, if Desktop computers don't implement SVG, they're going to be eaten alive by the Cell Phone Giant.