Vector Data and SVG

[John Hockaday]

Hi,

We have considered going to this type of format for quite a while but
we haven't done so far the following reasons:

	1. It usually needs a plugin and in some places it is against
	business rules to allow the download of plugins.  This would
	mean that several heavy government users of our products would
	not be able to use mapserv.

	2. Some people do not have the latest browsers and therefore
	would not be able to see the application.  (Similarly this is
	why I have limited even javascript as some people use old
	browsers that can't interpret it satisfactorily.)

For these reasons I would hope that mapserv is still maintained with
GIF format.  With the option of other formats such as, SVG etc.

Why haven't we all gone to PNG instead of GIF?  I think that it is
because nearly all browsers can see GIF and not all can see PNG.  I
think that this is a similar argument for not going to SVG.

I'm not trying to prevent developments in new methodologies but I would
like to make sure that the old formats are maintained.


Johnh

> 
> >>> Robert Chavez <rchavez at perseus.tufts.edu> 10/18/00 08:39AM >>>
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> I've been reading a lot about the Scalable Vector Graphics format SVG,
> most recently in a decent article:  Vector-based Web Cartography: Enabler
> SVG
> 
> http://www.carto.net/papers/svg/index_e.html  
> 
> Is it worth thinking about coming up with a way for mapserver/script to
> work with SVG?  The above article has some good mapping examples.
> 
> I haven't wrapped my brain around the problem yet, so I don't really know
> what kinds of issues this would involve for mapserver and I have more
> questions than answers: Is it worth thinking about?  Would any benefit be
> derived from using SVG in a web-based GIS environment like mapserver?  
> Where does SVG stand in terms of OpenGIS standards?
> 
> Just some thoughts.  Does anyone have any insights on SVG that they might
> want to share?
> 
> Rob Chavez
> Programmer
> Perseus Project
> 
>