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SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Deprecated.">SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Deprecated.

By Nick Hodge | September 23, 2006

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.

Topics: adobe, strategy, svg, technology, xml | 6 Comments »

6 Responses to “SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Deprecated.”

  1. Antoine Quint Says:
    September 23rd, 2006 at 7:17 pm

    I think you’re mis­taken about Adobe’s announce­ment. Adobe said that they will dis­con­tinue sup­port for their SVG Viewer plug-in start­ing Janu­ary 2007 and cease dis­tri­bu­tion in Janu­ary 2008. Even though the Adobe SVG Viewer was the first sig­ni­fic­ant browser plug-in for ren­der­ing SVG con­tent, it has now become aged in the light of nat­ive browser sup­port in the likes of Moz­illa browsers (Fire­fox and Cam­ino), Opera and upcom­ing ver­sions of WebKit-based browsers (Safari, Omni­Web). The miss­ing piece of course is Inter­net Explorer, but Microsoft have been drop­ping strong hints through­out the com­munity that they will provide nat­ive sup­port of SVG too.

    So, there is absoutely no deprec­a­tion of SVG. SVG is a W3C stand­ard, it was never the prop­erty of Adobe and will never be the sole prop­erty of any cor­por­a­tion. If any­thing, the momentum around SVG has grown since nat­ive browser sup­port is upon us.

    Regards,

    Ant­oine

  2. Andrew Smith Says:
    September 23rd, 2006 at 8:09 pm

    My great bleed­ing ques­tion was “why isn’t it sup­por­ted in browsers?”. If MSIE sup­por­ted it nat­ively (no plug-in required) then I would have jumped at the chance to have crisp vec­tor graph­ics on a web page.

    Yes you can do it with Flash, but it’s a bar­ren waste­land as far as search engines are concerned.

    Just one of those things I never under­stood as to why (not).

    Andrew

  3. hodgenick Says:
    September 23rd, 2006 at 8:27 pm

    My point is that SVG was a missed oppor­tun­ity by Adobe to “do some­thing spe­cial” with graph­ics. I love the technology.

    I don’t dis­agree that it’s a good thing that SVG is a W3C stand­ard; nor that the W3C has deprec­ated the standard.

    My lament is that Adobe has deprec­ated the standard.

    Now Adobe (nor Adobe + Mac­ro­media) is the be-all-and-end-all of graph­ics in the browser; just that strong sup­port from either com­pany with some smart applic­a­tions could have moved the stand­ard on as far as devel­op­ment and “rich­ness” much quicker.

    Where are the build­ers? Where are the mul­ti­tude of developers? Where is the many online examples? Where is AJAX+SVG momentum? Where is SVG in IE7?

    SVG has retreated into a corner of the world; isol­ated hav­ing missed is poten­tial place in the world.

    Nat­ive browser sup­port on 90+% of the world’s browsers would be cool.

    Nick

  4. hodgenick Says:
    September 23rd, 2006 at 8:29 pm

    Andrew

    I agree on your com­ments on Flash. Give me XML where you can choose your backend engines to do cool stuff.

    SVG could have rep­lic­ated PDF.

    SVG gunna, coulda, woulda and shoulda.

    Missed oppor­tun­ity.

    Nick

  5. www.nickhodge.com | mungenet » Blog Archive » foreach { blogpost in blogpoststhisweek } closeloop; Says:
    September 24th, 2006 at 11:16 am

    […] I may have killed SVG off too soon, or at least taken an “Adobe-centric” view; and AndrewS com­ments that Search Engine Optim­isa­tion (SEO) and Flash is bogus. Read­ing some of the posts from the Flash­For­ward Con­fer­ence, the cur­rent, mod­ern mech­an­ism is to use SWFOb­ject. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social book­mark­ing sites where read­ers can share and dis­cover new web pages. […]

  6. www.nickhodge.com | mungenet » Blog Archive » XML Goo-i-ness Inside Says:
    December 7th, 2006 at 4:11 pm

    […] I was pre­ma­ture in say­ing SVG was deprec­ated. Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social book­mark­ing sites where read­ers can share and dis­cover new web pages. […]

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