The coming of SVG

[Mark Waddingham]

On 2017-11-10 18:50, David Bovill via use-livecode wrote:
> I don't think this would help (below). What is nice is to be able to 
> use
> professional illustration tools, and then add hypertext links to one of 
> the
> objects in the svg with built in tools - for instance using Graphic, or
> OmniGraphl). That way you can create complex beautiful (and scaleable)
> interface elements working with artists. Later you can also use 
> javascript
> to dynamically alter the links by referencing the node in SVG - again
> working with externally created SVG. I don't see how to do these things 
> if
> it is not possible to support events / links as per the TinySVG spec?
> 
>    - https://www.w3.org/TR/SVGTiny12/linking.html
>    - https://www.w3.org/wiki/SVG_Links

Elements of interactivity and animation have been on my mind with 
regards SVG - indeed, we can get very far with the pre-compilation 
approach that we are currently taking. For interaction to work it will 
be necessary to annotate the SVG file to explain which elements you want 
to receive event notifications for, and which SVG attributes/properties 
you want to be able to manipulate at runtime. For animation, it requires 
grokking and processing the SMIL elements/attributes which the full SVG 
Tiny spec defines.

I must confess I hadn't yet worked out how those annotations might be 
applied from an illustration tool - but you've just given me that 
missing piece :)

Kinda obvious now, but we can use hyperlinks on the SVG elements, which 
such tools do allow you to set - so no post-processing of the SVG by a 
human would be required.

So, I have an idea/plan on how to do this - so it is a case of when and 
not if.

The only bit this would not allow would be the ability to 
add/move/remove elements from the tree, or set attributes/properties 
which are structural (e.g. gradients can inherit from other gradients in 
SVG 1.1). However, that is not necessarily too much of a blocker here - 
as you can have all the elements you need present in the tree at the 
point of creation, and just control their display by the visibility 
attribute.

To get full interactivity like you get in browsers would require 
implementing a dynamic SVG canvas - which sounds like an interesting and 
useful path for the previously mentioned 'canvas' control idea...

Warmest Regards,

Mark.

-- 
Mark Waddingham ~ mark at livecode.com ~ http://www.livecode.com/
LiveCode: Everyone can create apps