SVG usage? In HTML/XHTML documents?

[Albert Wiersch]

I started adding "basic" SVG usage to CSE HTML Validator. I was curious how helpful this would be. I don't seem to encounter a lot of HTML with embedded SVG in it (using the "svg" element) so I'd like to ask here.

Is there anyone who would find SVG validation/checking useful?

Currently I plan to support the SVG elements more fully in v11.01, but not check the attributes of the SVG elements. If there is enough demand to justify the implementation time, then I could start checking the attributes of the SVG elements as well.

Thank you!

[MikeGale]

Years ago I used SVG and found it very powerful. I used it for real work on the web, converting the output to images, with expectation that the image would become redendant within a year or two. I liked working with it.

Well politics and lunacy ruled for say a decade, even Adobe's SVG addin was allowed to die!

I think there's a good chance that it will become important. HTML5 for one and Windows Metro apps for another. Even though XSLT on the browser seems to be fossilised, XSLT 1 did a good enough job and it's practical to use a more advanced XSLT engine on the server, anyway. On top of that technologies like LINQ to XML offer additional (appealing) ways to achieve results.

I had a quick look at the open source SVG editor, Inkscape. I haven't looked at it for a while. It's still going, even though still in Beta. An check of the community using that (and similar tools) might give more insights.

I for one am looking forward to SVG being usable cross browser. I'd be surprised if it doesn't pick up a lot of graphics on the web, when it's prevalent enough.

[Albert Wiersch]

Mike, thanks for the feedback. It sounds like just checking the elements and not attributes will be sufficient for now.

I wonder how many people create SVG by hand, anyway? From my brief look at it, it seems like it's something that you wouldn't want to do by hand... and thus with few, if any, people writing SVG by hand, a 'full' or 'fuller' validator for SVG would, at this point, not be worth the time implementing it.

But if there are any "SVG junkies" out there, then please let me know! I'd be interested to know how useful it would be for CSE HTML Validator to have better support for SVG. It would be easy to add messages about browser support for any SVG elements that might be problematic in current browsers (but I would need to know exactly what to check for and what message to generate).

[MikeGale]

I haven't analysed this properly but I imagine there's potential for the people who currently do:
Flash
Mobile phone Apps
Images on web pages
Browser based games
Windows apps (of a certain type)
Infographics

to try out SVG as a medium (and canvas...).

Many of these would, I guess, not currently be in the CSE user base.

(There are intelligent analyses on the web about the choice between rich internet tools; flash, svg, canvas, silverlight, phone-OS-app... to get a better fix on that.)

Some of these would involve creating your own SVG. If that was easy to do, more would adopt the technology.

Time will tell how that goes.