Updated my SVG support chart for the latest batch of browsers out there:
- Safari 4 Beta (81.93%)
- Chrome 2.0 Nightly (81.39%)
- Internet Explorer 8 (0.00%)
- Some more recent Firefox builds (3.5b latest, pre-3.6+SMIL)
Great to see Chrome 2.0 with SMIL enabled (like Safari 4)! I'm really looking forward to the next wave of modern browsers: There's enough SMIL enabled in Opera, Safari 4 and Chrome 2 that you can start to do some really fun things.
Now you can read on for some complaints leveled against Konqueror 4.2.1.
I recently got some VMs working on my Macbook for Ubuntu and Kubuntu and I wanted to add a column to my SVG support chart for Konqueror 4.2.1. Unfortunately I can't really figure out what happened to Konqueror.
Konqueror tries to display the SVG test frame at 100x100 pixels because it no longer understands % (the image has width="100%" height="100%"). It also does not properly resize the image to the containing element (the <object> element has an explicit size that should override it according to the spec). Ironically if I remove the width/height attribute from the SVG file (the lacuna value is 100%), then everything behaves properly. Now I have to write a script to take out the width/height from all the test suite files?
Also, when testing the SVGF 1.1 test suite locally for comparison, Konqueror only shows me the text contents of the <desc> element instead of the actual SVG shapes. WTF? How can Dolphin (the file manager in Kubuntu) get the preview more or less correct and Konqueror cannot?
So how's that move to WebKit going on the KDE side?
I have some UI quibbles too: Konqueror doesn't let me View Source (CTRL+U) for an SVG document (must consider it an image?). Also when viewing source of a local HTML file, Konqueror brings up Kate (a text editor). Kate doesn't actually show me the local file though, it shows me a copy that Konqueror has made in /tmp/. If Konqueror is browsing a local file it should bring up the editor with that actual file.
So how do I report bugs for these?
The konqueror web page hasn't been updated for a year and a half. The ksvg2 web page hasn't been updated for almost 4 years. The khtml.info page is now a parked domain. I went to bugs.kde.org and signed up. Then I searched for any bugs with 'svg' with "Zero bugs found". I notice that there are products: ksvg, ksvg2, konqueror / kthml part. I'm guessing one of those is it. So I opened one bug.
I'd appreciate any information that KDE gurus can share. If Konqueror is still active and under development and the KDE guys want that to be the default browser for the KDE system, I suggest they get a web page up and keep it active at the very least. A second goal would be to not degrade major functionality from previous releases, but we know the KDE history so I won't go there.
Any idea why Microsoft refuses to add native support for SVG in IE?
I have ideas, yes. 🙂
According to Microsoft, the reasons they do not yet support IE natively in SVG are:
and they have vml! their own “standard” by iso, invented by ms. They have the same scripting language under different names since ie 5.5!
according to http://blog.wired.com/business/2009/01/more-details-ab.html :
MS said :”There is no official roadmap for IE9, but native SVG support is likely.”
Though time and time again SVG is asked for rather strongly by the market,
many are rather skeptical, have seen too many empty promises. Is it again like MS riding you like a donkey, holding a carrot on a stick in front of you, making you walk towards it, but never coming closer really?
And MS rather have us use their proprietary SilVerliGht instead.
Some possible scenarios?
-no SVG support in IE9
-SVG support on top of Silverlight
-no real SVG support, but a faulty version. remember embrace, extend, …?
-outstanding really native SVG support
As MS has lost respect with many web developers (IE’s bad standards support limits options for web developers, and brings on a lot of extra hassle), it could really use to regain some respect from them. Outstanding really native SVG support would certainly help on that a lot. And with an IE marketshare that has been dropping for years, this might just be the thing MS needs.
another reason recently given (for failing Acid 3) “Because Standards Not Official”
http://www.osnews.com/story/21193/_IE8_Does_Not_Pass_Acid3_Because_Standards_Not_Official_
apparently, SVG 1.1 and DOM Level 2 are still drafts. They believe.
On to KSVG – yes, weird. I will see if I can find whats up there with the lack of current web page. Possibly they are in mid churn (the initial code direction was KDOM and KSVG2 -> Webkit, now its more the other way round).
At Google Summer of Code 2008, there was a project to port WebKit’s SVG implementation to KHTML.
http://vtokarev.wordpress.com/2008/07/22/gsoc-svg-now-konq-knows-how-to-write/
http://code.google.com/soc/2008/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=A785D7E84951DE33
KHTML 4 still lucks SVG support, though.
BTW, you can use WebKit on Konqueror on Kubuntu by installing “webkitkde” package. Then you can select View -> View Mode -> WebKit.
# I tested that on Konqueror 4.1.4/Ubuntu 8.10
@taken: Thanks for the information here! Somehow I missed this. So are you saying that the GSOC project hasn’t made it over the line yet? Is the existing SVG implementation in Konq 4.2.1 coming from KSVG, KSVG2 or something else?
Sorry, no information for the khtml.
For the svg animation on fx 3.6pre, I’ve to enable
svg.smil.enabledtotrue. I could see the svg partial animation only. Opera 9.6* still better.