RE: Lingua Franca of the Web - Will SVG replace HTML?

I don't think I'd go so far as to say that text is more important than
graphics. That presumes a far more literate world than we currently have.

What about people who are illiterate?

What about people with cognitive/learning disabilities?

What about people for whom the language of the page is a second or third
language?

Images speak loudly. A picture of one dead child can do more to convey the
horror of war than thousands of words.

I commend your aggressive promotion of accessibility, Sean, but let's not
forget that there are many for whom images are the key to accessibility.

That said, I think that Andrew is a man on a mission, and like all true
believers, his faith is unshakeable. He wants to build (is building) all SVG
web sites. And while I'm not convinced that an all-SVG site is inherently a
bad thing, I hope that you are right and that XHTML remains the lingua
franca. I also hope that Andrew broadens his view. A Leatherman is a nice
tool for quick fixes or minor problems, but it cannot compare to a complete
set of tools.

Actually, that's a pretty good analogy. For many people, a Leatherman is all
they need. And I don't see a problem with SVG used for millions of home
pages or simple sites. But that's only one type of site. For a large,
database-backed, text-intensive site, the full tool set should be required.

Charles F. Munat,
Seattle, Washington


-----Original Message-----
From: www-html-request@w3.org [mailto:www-html-request@w3.org]On Behalf
Of Sean B. Palmer
Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2001 12:56 PM
To: AndrewWatt2001@aol.com; www-talk@w3.org; www-html@w3.org
Subject: Re: Lingua Franca of the Web - Will SVG replace HTML?


(from the subject): Will SVG replace HTML?

Replace - no chance. Complement - yes please. SVG is great as far as
accessibility for graphics goes, but I think it would be a huge mistake to
claim that it can do things outside of its scope when it simply can't. I'm
a big fan of SVG over using pixellated image formats, and I hope that SVG
seriously becomes the most widely used Web graphics format, but no way will
it replace HTML. It will be used inside XHTML, and can perform numerous
functions, but it simply doesn't have the document structuring or
modularization that XHTML provides. XHTML has been the lingua franca for
the Web for 10 years, and I don't think it will be replaced by anything
soon, even a "better" version of XHTML itself. While it my evolve to some
extent, it will not resemble a graphics format, and nor should it to. Text
it the most important thing in the world, followed by graphics: some people
can't see graphics. Content, and expression of that content in interopeable
ways is vital to the existence of the Web, and XHTML does provide that in
some senses (even though many (including myself in this thread) have
pointed out it isn't perfect).

--
Kindest Regards,
Sean B. Palmer
@prefix : <http://infomesh.net/2001/01/n3terms/#> .
[ :name "Sean B. Palmer" ] has :homepage <http://infomesh.net/sbp/> .

Received on Sunday, 21 January 2001 16:19:34 UTC