The World Wide Web Consortium Issues WebCGM Profile as a W3C Recommendation

Dear friend of W3C,

this is the second of W3C's press releases today.

The online version of this press release is at
http://www.w3.org/Press/1999/WebCGM-REC - the testimonials page featuring
testimonials from Inso, InterCAP Graphics Systems, Inc., ITEDO Software,
Larson Software Technology, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (CCLRC), System
Development, Inc, US Navy and Xerox is appended at the end of this message
or online at http://www.w3.org/Press/1999/Testimonials-WebCGM

Best regards,

Josef Dietl


  The World Wide Web Consortium Issues WebCGM Profile as a W3C
Recommendation

Interoperability for Industrial-strength CGM Graphics

   Press Release at

   [1]Testimonials
     _________________________________________________________________

   Contact
          Josef Dietl, <[2]jdietl@w3.org>, +33 4.92.38.79.72

   America --
          Ian Jacobs, <[3]jacobs@w3.org>, +1.212.684.1814

   Europe --
          Ned Mitchell, <[4]ned@ala.com>, +33 1 43 22 79 56
          Andrew Lloyd, <[5]allo@ala.com>, +44 127 367 5100
     _________________________________________________________________

   http://www.w3.org/ -- 21 January, 1999 -- Leading the Web to its full
   potential, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today released the
   [6]WebCGM Profile as a W3C Recommendation. Developed in close
   collaboration between W3C and the [7]CGM Open Consortium, the profile
   reflects cross-industry agreement on an interoperable way to exchange
   dynamic, hyperlinked Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) files over the
   Web. CGM is an ISO standard graphics format widely used in the
   aerospace, defence, automotive and medical industries, for example in
   interactive online technical manuals.

   A W3C Recommendation indicates that a specification is stable,
   contributes to Web interoperability, and has been reviewed by the
   [8]W3C Membership, who favor its adoption by the industry.

   Key industry players - members of CGM Open, W3C, or both - brought
   their expertise to the design of this profile: ArborText, Auto-trol
   Technologies, Aerospatiale, Bentley Systems, The Boeing Company,
   CCLRC, Inso Corporation, Intercap Graphics Systems, ITEDO/IsoDraw,
   Jeppesen Inc, Larson Software Technology, NIST, System Development
   Inc, Xerox Corporation and Zeh Graphic Systems. The work was also
   supported by the European Commission's Esprit Project and undertaken
   in liaison with ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC24, the ISO working group which
   developed the CGM specification.

   "SC 24 is pleased that W3C and CGM Open have developed the WebCGM
   profile. As the original developer of the CGM International Standard,
   SC 24 looks forward to continued cooperative work with our partners
   W3C and CGM Open in defining future standards for the web." said Steve
   Carson, Chair, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC24

Guarantees Interoperability

   The CGM specification is rich and has many optional parts. This gives
   great flexibility but has in the past led to interoperability
   problems: valid encoders producing valid files which valid decoders
   could not handle. Profiles describe which features of CGM are to be
   used, and in precisely what way, to achieve interoperability.

   "Previously, there were several proprietary flavours of hyperlinked
   CGM, each produced valid CGM files but they would not interoperate
   with other vendors products,"  said Chris Lilley, Activity Lead for
   Web Graphics at W3C. "Today's release of the WebCGM Profile is the
   technical part of the solution, and the product announcements by
   Members of W3C and CGM Open make interoperability a reality."

Combines Industrial CGM Experience With Web Know-How

   Based on the widely used aerospace profile (ATA) recently adopted by
   the automotive industry, the graphical features of the WebCGM Profile
   are proven in use. Web-oriented features such as variable transparency
   and inclusion of the sRGB color space used by HTML 4.0 and CSS make
   CGM a good Web citizen.

   "WebCGM represents big step forward in both the CGM state of the art,
   as well as interoperability of graphics on the Web. Existing CGM
   clientele will benefit by having an immediate migration path to
   internet and intranet configurations, and WebCGM should provide an
   attractive option for compact, open, and reliable graphics interchange
   for many other Web graphics users as well. I'm very pleased that this
   collaboration between the experts of W3C and CGM Open has proved so
   fruitful, resulting in this first vector graphics standard for the
   Web," said Lofton Henderson, Chairman of CGM Open.

   Intranet applications in engineering and manufacturing are expected to
   derive immediate benefit from the open, vendor-neutral WebCGM Profile.
   Other application areas are not forgotten: W3C is working on a new
   Scalable Vector Graphics format, written in XML and stylable with CSS,
   which complements WebCGM and is expected to find uses in advertising,
   sales support materials, and other types of graphics design.

Adds Hyperlinking

   The WebCGM Profile allows hyperlinks within multiple pictures in a
   document, links to close-up views of parts of a picture, and links
   from CGM to an HTML document, including a frame in a frameset. Links
   can have multiple destinations - for example, the wing of an aircraft
   could link to structural diagrams, wiring schematics, test results and
   parts lists.

   The WebCGM Profile follows the W3C [9]Xlink design principles and is
   conformant with the RFC 1738 and RFC 1808 specifications used for all
   URLs (Web addresses).

   Further information on WebCGM can be found at
   [10]http://www.w3.org/Graphics/WebCGM/
     _________________________________________________________________

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

   The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by
   developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its
   interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly
   run by the [11]MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the
   USA, the [12]National Institute for Research in Computer Science and
   Control (INRIA) in France and [13]Keio University in Japan. Services
   provided by the Consortium include: a repository of information about
   the World Wide Web for developers and users, sample code
   implementations to embody and promote standards, and various prototype
   and sample applications to demonstrate use of new technology. To date,
   over 300 organizations are [14]Members of the Consortium.

   For more information about the World Wide Web Consortium, see
   [15]http://www.w3.org/

About CGM Open

   The CGM Open Consortium, Inc is an organization of vendors and users
   of CGM technology. The non-profit international consortium has the
   stated mission of promoting the Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) as an
   open and interoperable standard for the exchange of graphical
   information.

   The work of CGM Open complements that of standards bodies, focusing on
   making CGM easy to adopt, and CGM based products practical to use, in
   real-world, open system applications.

   For more information about CGM Open, see [16]http://www.cgmopen.org/

   Press Release

   [17]Testimonials


    [18]Valid HTML 4.0!

References

   1. http://www.w3.org/Press/1999/Testimonials-WebCGM
   2. mailto:jdietl@w3.org
   3. mailto:jacobs@w3.org
   4. mailto:ned@ala.com
   5. mailto:allo@ala.com
   6. http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-WebCGM
   7. http://www.cgmopen.org/
   8. http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Member/List
   9. http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-xlink-principles
  10. http://www.w3.org/Graphics/WebCGM/
  11. http://www.lcs.mit.edu/
  12. http://www.inria.fr/
  13. http://www.keio.ac.jp/
  14. http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Member/List
  15. http://www.w3.org/
  16. http://www.cgmopen.org/
  17. http://www.w3.org/Press/1999/Testimonials-WebCGM
  18. http://validator.w3.org/

Received on Thursday, 21 January 1999 17:36:33 UTC