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Re: In praise of SVG

• From: Len Bullard <cbullard@h...>
• To: David Brownell <david-b@p...>
• Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 18:42:17 -0600

David Brownell wrote:
> 

> That's a troll, right?

No that's a statement;  I'm a troll.

> I thought it was pretty well recognized that 2D was enough simpler
> than 3D that it didn't work that way.  Collisions don't happen, the
> two are on different roads.  Most people don't _want_ the headaches
> that come up in 3D modeling.

It looks like that until you do a lot of graphics, then the reusability 
of 3D becomes obvious.  That is why it does well in the CAD world.  
Some folks worked with 2.5D for illustrations, but it is a dead end.  
It really is easier to do 3D once you learn how (authoring
perspective).  
 
> Frankly, http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/ sure looks enough for me to use!

Me too, and for some applications (eg, maps, non-reusable views, etc) it 
is precisely the right application.  I don't think it a killer app, but 
I don't think killerness is the right attitude for marketing any web
language. 
Most of what is done with SVG, Flash does fine.  What SVG does better 
is integrate with the emerging family of lexically unified, XML
application 
languages.

This is a bit like AFs as Eliot said.  You do this stuff a long time 
before certain things become obvious.  For example, getting the utility 
of XML across to the X3D designers was a real struggle.  No matter how 
long we do this stuff, someone always believes the fact that they can 
write a parser for a more compact syntax in production code is the 
most important thing to consider.  It isn't.  The impact of the overall 
framework of application languages that are integrated in a multimedia 
app is.  Costs go up with the surface area of the number of ways one 
HAS to know to get a single work finished.

Again, SVG is cool.  I like it.  I'll use it.  But I've done too much 
hypermedia authoring and production work to subscribe to the killer 
app mentality, or not to recognize when application language scopes 
overlap.  SVG and X3D are on a collision course in the market and 
mindshare of the pixel economy.  That ain't a bad thing necessarily. 
It depends on how they are marketed.

len


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