RE: [xml-dev] Acrobat SVG and Flash - comparisions? (was Re: [xml-dev] What are the arguments *for* XHTML 2.0?)

["Chuck White" <chuck@tumeric.net>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Champion [mailto:mc@xegesis.org]
> Yup, I did over-do the numbers, didn't I? :-)  Sorry for getting
caught
> up in gloom. I will happily admit that Acrobat and Flash are both more
or
> less ubiquitous.  And that was my point -- as a practical matter one
has
> to develop rich client  internet apps for the software that one
expects
> the
> target audience to have pre-installed.

Well, first off, Acrobat and SVG are two completely different media
formats. Acrobat is for PDF, which is generally used for print
publications (you know, you download a PDF file not so much to read on
your screen but to print on your printer). SVG is a vector-based
illustration language which in my mind is best used as a complement to
another presentation vocabulary such as XHTML or XSL-FO. So if there is
any tie-in to developing (or developed) W3C standards, we're talking
XSL-FO, not SVG (although you can include SVG in XSL-FO documents, I am
pretty sure, the same way you can include vector graphics in final
production print documents -- but I don't have any personal experience
trying to get an XSL-FO document with embedded SVG into a PDF format,
and, I could be wrong about that).

Adobe supports SVG through its unfortunate SVG reader. I wasn't aware
Acrobat had any support for SVG, and thought it was strictly a PDF
reader.

> So, again as a practical matter in today's environment, what can one
> do in SVG (as supported in recent Acrobat Readers) that would offer
> a "rich client" experience -- nice looking UI, client-side
> assistance/validation,
> the hokey animated effects that I personally hate but Joe Consumer
> apparently
>  likes ... along with the ability to produce and consume XML content.
Now
> for the less hopeful question: what tools exist
> that would allow non-geeks to develop such content in SVG?  

As supported by Adobe's SVG plug-in, you mean? Nothing. The plug-in is
awful. But in theory, you should be able to do anything in SVG that you
can do in Flash, and more, including video (by interacting with another
nascent and poorly supported vocabulary, SMIL) and much better support
for XML data sources.

>(I
> think we could probably agree that Flash MX more or less defines
> the state of the art?)  How about XForms?  I at least hear
> rumors of XForms implementations that will run in Flash reader
> (not sure of the version).

XForms in Flash? Can I see this implementation? Flash support for XML is
something only people with very strong stomachs are willing to fight
through. Whoever can get an XForms implementation working in it should
receive some kind of award.

Cheers,


Chuck White
-------------------------
Author, Mastering XSLT, Sybex Books
Co-Author, Mastering XML Premium Edition, Sybex Books
http://www.javertising.com/webtech/
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