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@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@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 ~ m...@livecode.com ~ http://www.livecode.com/ > > LiveCode: Everyone can create apps > > > > _______________________________________________ > > use-livecode mailing list > > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your > subscription preferences: > > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > > _______________________________________________ > use-livecode mailing list > use-livecode@lists.runrev.com > Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your > subscription preferences: > http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode > -- On the first day, God created the heavens and the Earth On the second day, God created the oceans. 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