Re: SVG Mania and the Sematic Web

> There is a side issue of dynamic SVG replacing dynamic HTML, especially for
> pull down menus.  Does this have the same accessibility issues, or does it
> overcome some or many of them.

My view is that SVG is competing with Flash, and, if adopted by Microsoft
and recognized by the mass of authors, will result in rather more visually
predictable, but entirely visual, web page designs.  It's basically a
descendant of PDF, not of HTML.

Originally, it offered a more semantic way of doing static drawings than
bit maps, but now all the concentration is on animation.  With likely 
authoring tools, authors will be able to easily place components of the
page individually, and are unlikely to place them in a sensible linearised
reading order, because they will probably never see the linearised code.

The SVG developers claim that it is better than Flash, but my impression is
that it has attracted slightly less trivial applications because the people
who commision web pages are not really aware of it, or are put off by the
fact that it is not bundled with IE.

This is not a new view, although it has been reinforced by the direction
of the discussions on www-svg following the release of the the version 1.1 
draft.

Received on Sunday, 1 December 2002 18:54:36 UTC