SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a non-proprietary, XML driven alternative to flash that can be easily modified using a text editor. Sounds good, but is it working?
SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a non-proprietary, XML driven alternative to flash that can be easily modified using a text editor. Sounds good, but is it working?
People are starting to make games, maps, and other interactive stuff. Look at the Tuerlersee Map where you can digitize cross sections and then create profiles of a digital landscape model. You can visualise the Movement of a Glacier as well as map Social Patterns of Vienna from some census data or plot Animated Population Pyramids.
The SVG_2 plugin came bundled with Acrobat Reader_5. If you have Adobe Reader_6 you can even see interactive SVG content within PDF files. Check out this US Population Map that is embedded in a PDF file (could you do that with Flash?). And it’s all open XML. These are just a few usage cases but instead we play flash friday here all the time.
SVG was supposed to be Adobe’s Flash killer when they released LiveMotion a few years ago. LiveMotion came at a time when Flash was still taking over the space that Shockwave filled — before it was at super-saturation. There’s no surer sign of who already won the battle than Adobe’s own LiveMotion page.
Which makes one wonder. The technology has been around for a good while now, but something has obviously kept it from taking off. The idea behind it is an open source, standards compliant alternative to Macromedia Flash. But the very thing that shot Flash to fame is its seamless integration in all the browsers that matter, unlike SVG’s take-up, which has been dismal.
Had LiveMotion picked up any momentum whatsoever at that time, Macromedia would have had incentive to support SVG to compete. Flash continued to spread, however, as if LiveMotion and SVG didn’t exist. Now, in 2004, there are dozens of third party products available using Flash including XML->FLASH tools that basically replicate SVG’s functionality (e.g., this).
So, again, is SVG really worth it, despite all the hooplah in the open source community? Not helping things, Adobe has quietly dropped support for SVG from the newest version of Illustrator. While still a closed format, the newest versions of Flash (with fairly robust scripting and XML support) may seem to be minimizing the improvements SVG offers.
But all is not lost for Adobe. SVG may curry favor with developers because it presents a stable, accessible, and more secure solution (e.g., inherent for the same kind of things that Flash is used for.
And if that doesn’t convince you of the benefits of SVG, compare this SVG incarnation of halloween with this Flash version.
This post is tagged Musings
