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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?"
On thefacebook.com, "visualize my friends" creates an svg file that shows all the connections between your friends, and Safari displays it just fine.
The news is ofcourse great. The quality
of the news item is not. The correct KDOM
link is:
http://websvn.kde.org/trunk/kdenonbeta/kdom/
Also Eric is *not* part of the Safari team,
though he works with them often.
Cheers,
Rob.
No. Because it's Apple. If it's on Microsoft, then it's mainstream.
The question wasn't "is SVG now mainstream", but "will SVG go mainstream". Technologies adopted by Apple tend to go mainstream, so it's a valid question, and one you didn't address.
Your response isn't very insightful, either.
SVG already *is* "on Microsoft". And on Apple, too. You just have to install a plug-in (just like Java and Real and other "mainstream" features).
Mainstream doesn't mean "on Microsoft", it just means it's common enough--that it's reached some threshold of popularity. SVG is "on Microsoft" right now, but it's not mainstream. If Mac users get good SVG support in Safari and web sites start to offer SVG content in greater numbers, SVG will be mainstream. Windows users will, as usual, just have to click the "get plugin" button--they're used to it.
Now that Apple is going to include native SVG support with Safari (assuming this comes to pass), the odds of SVG going mainstream really have increased tremendously.
If you have the Adobe SVG plugin it does. But not by itself. Try ctrl-clicking on the SVG graphic and select "About SVG viewer", voilá!
Apple adding native support would mean that there would be a userbase with SVG support by default, as with good PNG transparency support and CSS text shadows where Apple has paved the way.
Seems like these days you just can't ask people to download appropriate plugins anymore. Oh how I miss the roarin' nineties...
There's no 'on' position on the Slacker switch!
Java, Real, QuickTime, flash, etc, are all "mainstream" and none are built into MSIE.
MS did their own Java. It was bundled since IE4, got kicked with WinXP, was bundled again with WinXP-SP1 and was kicked out again with WinXP-SP1a.
MS once licensed the RealPlayer. IIRC it was during Win95 or Win98.
MS licensed QT (the file format). WMP can still play old (pre-Sorenson codec) QT movies.
MS have licensed Flash. It's bundled with every Windows release since Win98 or something.
Not all of these products are still bundled with Windows/IE, but they were in the past. It surely helped their adoption.
If MS doesn't support it natively, it is not mainstream.
So I wonder when PDF is going mainstream.
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.
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.
... I tought that the K in KSVG2 was from KDE, and KDE comes with Linux, BSD and many other Unices (http://www.kde.org/download/distributions.php).
Then I thought that the Adobe SVG Viewer is available for Windows platforms for a couple of years now - and while you consider it awful, it is the most compliant SVG viewer I have ever tried.
Then there is Firefox 1.1 and the beautiful (because of JavaScript) support for SVG in Dear Park Alpha.
So no, SVG was probably not "first addopted" by Apple, but yes the addoption of SVG by Apple will certainly help SVG go mainstream. However, not as much as Adobe did, nor as Firefox will.
If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough. (Alan Kay)
Dude, you aren't worth arguing with because you think you are right regardless of how little supports your view.
Since one can't really speak slowly on the web in a non-annoying way, I'll instead suggest you read this slowly.
*Your* view is that web standards (in this case, SVG) require native, built-in support in IE to become mainstream. *My* view is that your view is wrong.
It only takes one example to show your view wrong, but I can think of many. PDF, Java, Real and QuickTime come to mind immediately.
This is unassailable. You are wrong.
Perhaps SVG will require IE support for some reason. But just saying, "for some reason" is not enough, just like saying, "Period." is not enough. You actually need to think of a logical, and compelling reason. You have provided none.