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Microsoft Wants To Participate In SVG Development

Posted by timothy on from the speak-friend-and-enter dept.

rossendryv writes "After many years of fighting against the standard, Microsoft announced they are joining the WC3's SVG working group to help with the development of SVG. 'We recognize that vector graphics are an important component of the next-generation Web platform,' said Patrick Dengler, senior program manager on Microsoft's Internet Explorer team in a blog post."

14 of 292 comments (clear)

  1. LOL. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Funny, funny.

  2. Oh thank you so very much.... NOT by sconeu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sure their help will be just like that they gave to the development of OpenGL.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  3. Torpedo? by pete-classic · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't really know how the W3C is organized, but shouldn't there be some protection against allowing organizations who are openly hostile toward a technology from sitting on the committee? Isn't this just common sense?

    Who do they think they are? The UN?

    -Peter

  4. This Should Be Interesting by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So basically you tried to shove your own proprietary format (XAML?) down our throats but that didn't work. So you thought you'd wait it out and see who had the biggest cajones in this game of chicken where people had to pick? But then Google and Adobe just made plugins for IE that made SVG work which kind of let the air out of your tires. And now, before you've even implemented the SVG Tiny spec in Internet Explorer you are saying things like 'We recognize that vector graphics are an important component of the next-generation Web platform'? So where would that leave IE since it has not implemented said important component of next-generation web platforms?

    So you basically want a say in which direction the spec takes from now on without having proven to anyone that you are truly committed to this?

    Or is this some hilarious attempt to sidle in at the last moment and hope everyone forgets about your blatant disregard for SVG and make it seem like SVG had always been in your plans but you're only now just getting around to it?

    I mean, you're looking mighty foolish now no matter which route you take.

    All that angst and animosity aside, I applaud this action. Get it implemented in IE right now so I can start writing crap that utilizes basic graphics without having to post an unnecessarily large image for a flow chart and we can start to carve down the Flash usage out there.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:This Should Be Interesting by LOLLinux · · Score: 5, Informative

      It seems you must be confusing XAML with VML.

    2. Re:This Should Be Interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      You do know that Adobe has stopped supporting their SVG plug-in, right? It was all fine and dandy until they bought Macromedia and didn't need a Flash competitor anymore.

      dom

  5. Fixed by hduff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We recognize that vector graphics are an important component of the next generation Web platform. As evidenced by our ongoing involvement in W3C working groups, we are committed to participating in the standards process to subvert those standards to our benefit. Our involvement with the SVG working group builds on that commitment.

    Fixed that for you.

    --
    "I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
  6. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish by bcmm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Title says it all. We've seen this before, folks.

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i llama
    Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
    1. Re:Embrace, Extend, Extinguish by ignavus · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm amazed it took 8 whole minutes of comments for someone to utter this, and more amazed the article wasn't already tagged as such. I really hope they don't put too much of a dent in things; I'm rather fond of SVG.

      (Mafia voice:) "That's a nice graphics standard you got there. Pity if anything happened to it."

      --
      I am anarch of all I survey.
  7. Translation: by FooAtWFU · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Silverlight didn't work, and we still want to kill Flash.

    --
    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    1. Re:Translation: by davester666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So, we'll implement something we'll call SVG, but only once the spec is changed to support Microsoft-only technologies.

      Like, say, that it must be implemented as an ActiveX control...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    2. Re:Translation: by FlyingBishop · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's certainly a nice thought (for them), but it won't work. As goes YouTube, so goes the Internet. Nothing Microsoft can do about that. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if IE9 at a bare minimum supports <video> and <audio> It's such a simple thing to hack into the engine that even they should be able to pull it off without any fuss.

      SVG, that's a bit trickier, but they do have that VML renderer lying around.

  8. Executable code, here we come by Animats · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You just know that Microsoft will try to stick in some way to embed executable code, so SVG files can invoke "platform specific services".

    Besides, without that, it won't be useful for viruses and trojans.

  9. That's nice by metamatic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As soon as Microsoft implements the current SVG standards in IE, they should be welcomed into the process of refining the standards further.

    Until they implement the current SVG standards, they should be kept away.

    [Opinions mine, not IBM's.]

    --
    GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak