[pm-h] Potential SVG Hackathon

[G. Wade Johnson]

On Sun, 08 Feb 2009 06:56:04 -0600
Mike Flannigan <mikeflan at att.net> wrote:

> 
> G. Wade Johnson wrote:
> > The SVG Interest Group is considering helping to coordinate with
> > programming groups to do some form of SVG hackathon. The idea would
> > be to help with any project using SVG and to help familiarize group
> > members with this image format.
> >
> > Would any of you be interested in such an event if one were
> > available in the Houston area?
> >
> > G. Wade
> >   
> 
> I didn't know what SVG was, so I looked it up:

Sorry, I've been using SVG for quite a few years and forgot everyone
doesn't know about it.

> SVG, or Scalable Vector Graphics, is an open W3C standard for
> graphics on the web. "Vector graphics" means that SVG images are made
> up of lines, curves and other "smooth" elements, unlike "bitmap"
> formats such as GIF, JPEG or PNG. When you zoom in on a GIF, JPEG or
> PNG, it gets grainy and blocky - but when you zoom in on an SVG, it
> stays smooth.

The specification also supports scripting of elements (through
ecmascript) and declarative animation (through SMIL). There are also
advanced filtering features for changing elements.

> Reportedly like Flash.

That's a common misconception. SVG is more of a powerful 2D graphics
format that can be scripted, rather than a system for building larger
applications. You can build relatively impressive applications in SVG,
but that wasn't it's main focus.

> It's often used for GIS/Mapping applications, which I
> am interested in.  I'd like to hear what is happening
> on a high level, so maybe I'll join the Interest Group.

There's an SVG developers group on Yahoo, which serves as a gathering
place for people developing with SVG.
(http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/svg-developers/)

The SVG IG is maintaining a new site at http://planetsvg.com/.

The SVG Wiki is located at http://wiki.svg.org/Main_Page.

Currently, SVG is natively supported by Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and the
Webkit-based browsers (Safari). It is also being used extensively in
the KDE window manager for Linux.

There are a couple of plugins for IE, but they have been less supported
in recent years. New plugins are on the horizon.

Sorry for leaving out all of the background information.
G. Wade
-- 
Don't kill him!! If you kill him, he won't learn nothin'!
                                    -- The Riddler, "Batman Forever"