RE: [Fsfe-uk] An ignorant question?

[Robert \(Jamie\) Munro]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden
> [mailto:address@hidden Behalf Of Phil
> Driscoll
> Sent: 07 June 2003 08:45
> To: ian; MJ Ray
> Cc: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: [Fsfe-uk] An ignorant question?
>
>
> On Saturday 07 June 2003 12:31 am, ian wrote:
>
> > I think there is a serious issue here. Animating graphics quickly and
> > simply is a very useful thing to do in education. On the Acorn platform
> > programs such as Tween and Mogul showed the way (I used them to animate
> > some graphics for Johnny Ball Reveals all for Central TV). What is the
> > free software equivalent of flash?
>
> It is SVG (http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Overview.htm8), a most
> excellent W3C
> standard for an xml vector graphics file format which takes over
> where the
> Acorn drawfile left off, and can be 'animated' using javascript. The only
> downside is lack of browser support. AFAIK on the Adobe proprietary SVG
> plugin does a decent job of rendering the files.

Saying that SVG files animated using javascript is a replacement for flash
is missing the point entirely. Unless the person has a lot of spare time on
their hands, how are they supposed to make the SVG file, and animate it?
They don't want a programming environment that can do animations (you may as
well tell them to write their animations in C). They want to make
animations.

It's like when I say "I need a database front end to replace access" and
people tell me to use MySQL. MySQL is useless as a replacement to access. It
does a tiny subset of the functions of Access - storing and retrieving data
in tables (and it does it arguably less well - no sub selects etc.). When
people need a replacement for Access, they need a front end.

Of all people, Microsoft used to have a program called LiquidMotion that
produced animated web pages in Java and Javascript that would run on a
variety of browsers, without the need for a plugin like flash. A free
software program like this, possibly based on adding animation features to
sodipodi would be great.

Robert Munro