We can't rely on Microsoft, just like we shouldn't have been
comfortable relying on Adobe, to do the right thing and implement
native support for SVG for free. There are business considerations
that will always take priority. Even if they do it, I fear
compatibility issues - their browser engine is still the worst of the
major browsers out there.

So where are the open source, cross-platform SVG 1.1 viewers ? What
about taking the Mozilla base and developing a browser plugin from
that for only SVG support? What about candidates like AmanithVG and
Renesis for a SVG 1.2 viewer? Let's get a list of all the candidate
open-source projects and contribute so that they flourish before Jan
2008.

And I agree with Jon - praise to Adobe for past support, but I cry
foul to MacroAdobe for this distinctly hostile gesture towards this
development community. They know there is no suitable replacement
for IE as of today.

Jeff

--- In svg-developers@yahoogroups.com, Jon Ferraiolo <jferrai@...>
wrote:
>
>
> Margie,
> Thanks for the kind words. In terms of possible next steps, I
suggest
> finding a way to express your point of view (professionally, of
course)
> within a blog or a forum that Adobe would read. (I don't know the
degree to
> which Adobe monitors this forum and I am not sure what other
industry
> forums they read these days.) An important thing would be to give
detailed
> information about the business impact that you face. Adobe is
likely to be
> more receptive if a company speaks up and talks about any specific
> difficulties that they will face and what Adobe could do about
relieving
> those difficulties. Adobe is less likely to listen to people who
simply get
> up on their soapbox. (I already did that.)
>
> Jon
>
> Jon Ferraiolo <jferrai@...>
> Web Architect, Emerging Technologies
> IBM, Menlo Park, CA
> Mobile: +1-650-464-7817
>
>
>
>

>
"Marjorie
>
Roswell"
> <mroswell@...
To
> om> svg-
developers@yahoogroups.com
> Sent
by: cc
> svg-
developers@ya
> hoogroups.com
Subject
> Re: [svg-developers]
Re:
> Announcement: Adobe to
Discontinue
> 09/07/2006 05:03 Adobe SVG
Viewer
>
AM
>

>

> Please respond
to
> svg-
developers@ya
>
hoogroups.com
>

>

>
>
>
>
> Jon,
>
> That was beautifully written. Thank you for your work and advocacy
in the
> SVG community. What's the next step for our community to take,
regarding
> items 3, 4, and 5?
>
> Margie
>
>
> On 9/6/06, jon_ferraiolo <jferrai@...> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Pat,
> > Now that I am a member of the community and no longer an employee
of
> > Adobe, here is my reaction:
> >
> > (1) First off, I believe that Adobe deserves a great amount of
> > appreciation for their contributions to SVG and the open standards
> > world for their activities in previous years. Adobe provided a
> > high-quality free implementation of an SVG viewer at large
expense.
> > (Pat, you know this perhaps better than anyone.) Adobe also has
> > provided (and presumably will continue to provide) excellent
support
> > for SVG in some of its products, particularly Illustrator. Adobe
has
> > also made large contributions within the standards community on
SVG.
> >
> > (2) It is understandable that at some point Adobe would announce
the
> > end-of-life for Adobe SVG Viewer. Since the Macromedia
acquisition (at
> > least, perhaps even earlier), it is clear that Adobe doesn't
consider
> > the SVG viewer to be strategic. Also, browsers are adding SVG
support
> > natively.
> >
> > (3) HOWEVER, I believe that some of the details regarding this
> > end-of-life announcement are unacceptable to the community and
not in
> > Adobe's own best interests. To me, it is OK to stop "support"
> > (presumably developer support and security fixes) on Adobe SVG
Viewer
> > in the relative near-term, but instead of giving four months of
> > advanced notice (i.e., 1/1/07), it should be something measured in
> > years, something in the range of 2-4 years. (Note: 5 years is the
> > usual amount for developer-oriented software.)
> >
> > (4) It reflects badly on Adobe that it did not donate the ASV
source
> > code (at least the higher-level logic that sits above the graphics
> > rendering engine) to open soure. If Adobe isn't going to use ASV,
then
> > it should give it to the community so they can use it. Given how
Adobe
> > promoted industry adoption of ASV in the early days and thereby
> > convinced many developers to build mission-critical applications
using
> > SVG, it is the least that Adobe could do.
> >
> > (5) But the worst part of this announcement is the removal of ASV
> > downloads as of 1/1/08, with no option for others to host a
different
> > ASV download site. As others have pointed out, this will be
> > devastating to those poor souls who made a commitment to ASV in
the
> > past and need their deployed SVG applications to continue working
in
> > IE, which today has something like 80% market share and is
unlikely to
> > support SVG natively before a couple of years go by. This
particular
> > decision reflects badly on Adobe as a business partner with
> > developers. If nothing else, I appeal to Adobe to rethink this
part of
> > their decision. How much does it cost a company to maintain a
single
> > web page that is already working? If ASV quits working in some
> > situations, such as ASV not running under Vista, then just add
text to
> > the download page alerting people that ASV has been EOL'd and is
known
> > not to work with Vista. (But the better approach would be to open
> > source ASV so that the community can fix any such bugs.)
> >
> > Jon Ferraiolo
> > IBM
> >
> > > Adobe has decided to discontinue support for Adobe SVG Viewer.
There
> >
> > > are a number of other third-party SVG viewer implementations in
the
> > > marketplace, including native support for SVG in many Web
browsers.
> > > The SVG language and its adoption in the marketplace have both
matured
> > > to the point where it is no longer necessary for Adobe to
provide an
> > > SVG viewer.
> > >
> > > SVG is an established vector image format. Adobe currently
supports
> > > SVG in several of its authoring and server products, including
> > > Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, Version Cue, Graphics Server,
> > > FrameMaker, and FrameMaker Server.
> > >
> > > Adobe customer support for Adobe SVG Viewer will be
discontinued on
> > > January 1, 2007.
> > >
> > > For more information on this decision and answers to questions
about
> > > the discontinuation of Adobe SVG Viewer, please see
> >
> > > http://www.adobe.com/svg
> >
> > Messages in this topic
> > <
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svg-developers/message/
56704;_ylc=X3oDMTM2cGwwcGptBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEyOTg0MjEEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNjAxM\
DMwMzg5BG1zZ0lkAzU2NzIzBHNlYwNmdHIEc2xrA3Z0cGMEc3RpbWUDMTE1NzU4OTQ0MgR0cGNJZAM1N\
jcwNA-
-
> >(
> > 12) Reply (via web post)
> > <
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-?act=reply&messageNum=56723
> >| Start
> > a new topic
> > <
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-
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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>
>
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