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Google Brings SVG Support To IE
stelt writes "Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is in most graphical tools. It is used heavily in many big projects, such as KDE and Wikipedia. But Internet Explorer's lack of built-in support for SVG was keeping it away from mainstream use on the web. Google is fixing that now with a JavaScript drop-in named SVGWeb. They've posted a quick, one-minute overview, a longer and more detailed presentation, and you can read about it on the project page."
It's not bad performance, and useful for applets, but you don't want to use it for layout unless having dozens of little flash applets all over the page turns you on.
Yes rendering is done by Flash. But since Flash is installed in about 95% of computers that is not much of a problem. Not that I'm a big fan of Flash though.
Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think. --Niels Bohr
Despite the video being very very dry, there was an interesting link in the middle of the presentation: http://downloadstats.mozilla.com/
That site features real time download statistics for FF3.5. The interesting part is, that the map at the top is rendered in real SVG combined with canvas (for the dots).
About this flash based library: it's strange. At the demo page the native rendering of SVG failed and only the flash version worked on my FF 3.0.x.. Not a problem with my browser though, as the site I mentioned at the top as well as Wikipedia SVG's work fine. Something is not right with this library, but interesting non the less.
As a website builder, svg is more then just pictures, if i had it available to me i would create entire websites using it. ( xhtml+svg )
why?
because then i can finally present people with websites that look exactly the same everywhere and fill your entire browser screen.
dynamic design, dynamic fonts, dynamic everything. no more fixed layout design.
While i don't thing this new plugin is going to be the holy grail, it love to see them push in the right direction :)