Monday, June 10, 2002

SVG and SWF: Have Your Cake and Eat It Too!
Recently, there has been a bit of a buzz around two different articles at O'Reilly that focus on the merits of SWF and SVG, respectively. Both of these articles very effectively illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of each vector graphics standard. Yet, they also seem to hint that there is no possiblility of peaceful coexistence between the two. (If you haven't read the articles, I highly recommend you do so. The first, entitled "SWF Is Not Flash" is available here. The second, "SVG On the Rise," is here.)

After working with Jabber for a while, I've quickly come to realize the strengths of XML representation. SVG is a very powerful tool. The problem is harnessing the power of SVG inside of Flash. It would open a whole new world of potential if Flash could export/communicate using SVG, but unfortunately this is not the case.

After taking a look at the JabberZilla whiteboarding client, I realized that the power of SVG could easily be used inside of a Flash MX application. Using Jabber as the transport, whiteboard clients could transmit data back and forth in SVG form. If I draw a circle on the Flash client, this client would call a function that creates the SVG representation of this circle and sends it on its merry way. This would allow a Flash/Jabber whiteboard client to seamlessly communicate with, say, a Java/Jabber whiteboard client. There are limitations, of course. This is mainly because Flash does not natively "speak" SVG. Circles and squares would be easy to implement, for instance, but a series of hand drawn squiggles might be more difficult. This is just an idea, mind you. But I plan on actively pursuing it in the future.

If you have any thoughts/ideas on SVG and Flash, I'd enjoy hearing them.