www.nickhodge.com

RIP Scal­able Vec­tor Graph­ics (SVG).

Deprec­ated equals don’t use it. The momentum in the web-world has slowed to grind­ing halt.

Whilst SVG is a W3C tech­no­logy, not owned by Adobe, the ori­ginal spe­cific­a­tion came from PGML.

Sad, there was much poten­tial for SVG. All it would have taken was Adobe to make a stand­ard pro­gram­ming model and builder applic­a­tion and SVG really could have taken off. SVG is an example of good tech­no­logy becom­ing can­non fod­der, lost in the charge to an enemy: rather than tech­no­logy being used for good.

Today, we have two XML-based model for gen­er­at­ing rich inter­faces: MXML and XAML. One is in the oper­at­ing sys­tem and a part of a down­load, the other requires a bolt-on applic­a­tion in the browser.

SVG pre-dated these tech­no­lo­gies by some years. A stand­ard­ised wid­get lib­rary; exten­sion into 3D and co-operation by large com­pan­ies could have advanced the world of rich, con­nec­ted applications.

Stand­ard file formats invite com­pet­it­ive­ness in soft­ware applic­a­tions. Con­sider open, stand­ard­ised file formats like world-free trade. The most effi­cient and best sur­vive. A dar­winian selec­tion for the best.

Bet­ter luck next time.