The coming of SVG

Fri Nov 3 14:17:59 EDT 2017

SVG's are not just standalone objects.  They are also part of various
widgets.

On Fri, Nov 3, 2017 at 2:02 PM, Bleiler, Timothy via use-livecode <
use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:

> This is good news!!
>
> Is there any reason not to call the control “SVG?”
> Why create another abstraction in the name from what the control actually
> is?
>
> e.g.
> Set the fileName of SVG “My Picture” to ….
>
> Tim Bleiler, Ph.D.
> Instructional Designer, HSIT
> University at Buffalo
>
>
>
> > On Nov 3, 2017, at 9:19 AM, Mark Waddingham via use-livecode <
> use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > My most recent talk at LCG (in October) was 'Building an SVG Widget' and
> in order to talk about such a thing, I needed to actually build one - so I
> did :)
> >
> > So, we are now firmly on the road to full SVG support in LiveCode!
> >
> > At the moment the implementation only supports geometric shape tags,
> paths, and solid color fills. However, it supports the standard fill/stroke
> attributes and should work with any SVG file - anything which isn't
> supported just doesn't get rendered (so you have a modicum of graceful
> degradation in terms of features). In particular, you don't need to
> preprocess your SVG file to pull out incompatible tags / attributes, or
> just extract the path (as you do for the SVGIcon widget).
> >
> > The current implementation successfully renders quite a wide range of
> simple SVGs (simple in the features they use, rather than how they look!).
> Indeed, it happily renders the (quite widely known) Tiger and Lion SVGs,
> and has been tested on quite a few random SVGs I managed to find on
> Wikipedia. It is certainly more than capable if you want to use simply
> coloured multi-path SVGs.
> >
> > LCG attendees got a prototype of a widget to play with - called
> vectoricon - and integrating this initial version this into the product has
> now got to the top of my work-list :)
> >
> > The principal thing which I'd like some feedback on right now is the
> name of the widget/control - I think we have a good one, but wanted to see
> what you all thought before committing us to it forever and a day.
> >
> > Before getting to that though, I should perhaps explain what a potential
> path for the evolution of this new feature in LiveCode could look like.
> >
> > SVG as a concept allows arbitrary collections of vector shapes, images
> and text to be represented in a single high-level way as XML - in
> particular, you can express geometric shapes, raster images and text all in
> one unified form.
> >
> > Previously we had proposed producing a 'shape' object which would be a
> 'graphic object on steroids' - allowing affine transformation, higher
> fidelity specification of geometric objects and groups of them; providing
> an 'svgText' interface similar to htmlText on the field. Essentially, the
> proposed 'shape' object would have used a subset of SVG to allow easy
> interchange of what it represents.
> >
> > That notion of 'shape' object (and thus the current 'graphic' object)
> can be subsumed into the SVG implementation in an obvious way - if you ask
> your SVG object to be a rectangle, it creates (notionally) the SVG for a
> rectangle internally and uses that - which you would see via the svgText.
> >
> > Similarly, as SVG can represent raster images too, we can fold the
> current behavior of the 'image' object into it to - in a similar way.
> >
> > The end result here would be a single object which is a generalization
> of two existing objects - image and graphic - but without the
> backwards-compatibility baggage we currently have.
> >
> > In terms of using this new object in a consistent way to our current
> model, we propose (subsequently) to generalize the types of objects which
> can be referenced by imageSource and icon properties - allowing them to use
> any object which 'knows how to be used as an icon'. Currently, only the
> image object has this knowledge - but we can extend to other objects by
> getting them to implement the appropriate internal interface. This would
> mean that you could just replace the images you use currently for icons and
> such, with the new control which supports SVG and use SVG instead.
> >
> > Given the potential future path of this particular feature, we also
> propose to eventually give it an actual control type - rather than widget
> (although it will still be a widget). i.e. We think it is has such future
> potential that being able to do '<noun> "foo"' in script will be very
> useful (this is almost a requirement if it is to eventually 'replace' the
> image and graphic objects). [ Note: we have also been considering this for
> the browser widget too! ].
> >
> > Thus with all that in mind - we are proposing 'picture' as the name of
> the new SVG capable control, with the following ideal roadmap:
> >
> >  a) we would integrate the 'prototype' implemented for SVG as
> 'com.livecode.widget.picture'
> >
> >  b) we would add a 'picture' noun to the language as the control type
> for that widget
> >
> >  c) we would add icon reference support, allowing it to be used in place
> of an image
> >
> >  d) we would add graphic-like shape properties, allowing you to use it
> in place of a graphic
> >
> >  e) we would add support to the image tag in svg, and image-like image
> properties, allowing it to be used in place of an image
> >
> >  f) we would gradually expand support for the range of SVG it can
> directly render (gradients and layers are high on the hit list here)
> >
> > In terms of timescale, we are currently looking at delivering 'just' (a)
> for 9.0 (although I do have my eye on at least (c) too - we'll have to see
> how other things we still need to finish for 9 go). The rest all break down
> into bite-sized chunks which I'd hope we could iterate on it periodically
> after that.
> >
> > It goes without saying that we are interested in any and all feedback
> you might have on this idea; however, right now, our top priority is naming.
> >
> > As I said above 'picture' is our current top (and perhaps only!)
> contender - it says what SVG does (it represents pictures of things), can
> subsume the idea of image and graphic naturally, and is human-friendly. It
> is also a single word which is a current requirement if it is to be used as
> a chunk noun (like 'image', and 'graphic' etc.).
> >
> > I look forward to reading any feedback you might have!
> >
> > Warmest Regards,
> >
> > Mark.
> >
> > --
> > Mark Waddingham ~ mark at livecode.com ~ http://www.livecode.com/
> > LiveCode: Everyone can create apps
> >
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