SVG Tiny 1.2 Last Call Working Draft

Just a reminder that the deadline for review comments for SVG Tiny 1.2 Working Draft is only two days away (May 20, 2005).

I spent some time pouring over the document and nitpicking away, but I didn't get finished in time. Overall, the document seems in good shape. I have to cut the SVG Working Group a little slack because the SVG Tiny spec used to be a supplemental doc that was a specific profile of the SVG Full spec. However, in SVG 1.2 the paradigm has shifted such that SVG Tiny is its own complete language spec (and SVG Full will be an extension of SVG Tiny). I talked about this in the past too. Anyway, there must have been significant document merging, cutting, etc to re-arrange things so I can understand why some URLs are broken and some code samples include features that aren't even in SVG Tiny. They still need to be fixed though! 🙂

One problem I've seen with specifications (in general) is that they often contain many little errors and lack precision (i.e. are too ambiguous) and this results in more time on the user end trying to figure it out or post in mailing lists. Some may consider this anal-retentive, but I call it courtesy to the reader. Most importantly, if you're going to provide code samples or mathematical descriptions, they'd better be exact with no errors, otherwise you're just frustrating the user who has taken the time to try and understand what you're writing about. For this reason (and the fact that I can't contribute much else at this time), most of my comments are:

  • typos (scattered throughout the doc)
  • incorrect code examples/mathematical formulae (Sections 5.9.2, 7.7.3, and 7.7.4 have some errors in them)
  • clarifications (Sections 5.1, 5.9.2, 5.9.3, 5.11, 9.3 and 9.4 could all use fleshing out)
  • minor suggested improvements (Example 07_07.svg in Section 7.5 could be improved)

Submit your comments to the SVG W3C mailing list with prefix "[SVGMobile12]" in the subject. You can view archives of the mailing list (including all my comments) here. You can read my blog topics on SVG here.

§92 · May 18, 2005 · Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on SVG Tiny 1.2 Last Call Working Draft ·

Shuffling A Text File

I had a pretty simple task I wanted to accomplish: Take a text file and randomly shuffle all the lines in it. This was to be used to shuffle a video playlist on my main system because my video player software was crap and didn't remember its shuffle settings. I decided to put my JavaScript skills to use and learn how to do this via Windows Scripting. Read the rest of this entry ...

§90 · May 17, 2005 · JavaScript, Software, Technology · Comments Off on Shuffling A Text File ·

All Together Now, Acronyms-A-Go-Go

XML-based declarative user interface languages are becoming all the rage right now. While the ability to declare a GUI using a descriptive language is nothing new (I believe software for X-Windows/Motif widgets has been around for awhile), we are seeing this renewed focus due to several factors: 1) maturity of XML technologies on the web, 2) the rising popularity of Mozilla's Firefox browser, 3) next release of Windows (Longhorn) and 4) new web applications that provide an enhanced user experience over traditional web experiences (for example Gmail, Google Maps, Flickr). Read the rest of this entry ...

§89 · May 6, 2005 · Software, SVG, Technology, Web, XML · 1 comment ·

SVG Helps Us Waste Even More Time

As if Flash games weren't enough, Holger has released a new web-browser game written in SVG: Sokoban. This puzzle game is fun and challenging, but at 60 levels, it's unlikely that anyone is going to sit through them all. It's a shame that the game doesn't save a cookie and remember which level you've made it to (hint hint, Holger).

To play the above, your browser needs to support SVG (a relatively new web-based graphics standard). Until Mozilla Firefox 1.1 is released, I recommend you download the Adobe SVG Viewer plugin. For Internet Explorer, click here. For Mozilla Firefox, follow the instructions at the bottom of this page.

§87 · April 27, 2005 · Entertainment, Games, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on SVG Helps Us Waste Even More Time ·

PHP Gotcha

After I wrote this entry, I knew I had forgotten one "gotcha" from my little Remote Scripting experience. I remembered it today. It involves PHP and the annoying aspect of having to declare within a function when you want to use a global variable:

$gSomeVariable = 5;
function somefunc() {
   printf("%d", gSomeVariable);
}

The above will not produce "5". Without explicitly telling PHP that gSomeVariable is a global variable, it will assume it is a local variable and currently undefined.

Do you know how many time this has tripped me up? The correct PHP code is:

$gSomeVariable = 5;
function somefunc() {
   global $gSomeVariable;
   printf("%d", gSomeVariable);
}

For all the times I made this mistake: AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

§86 · April 23, 2005 · PHP, Software, Technology, Tips, Web · Comments Off on PHP Gotcha ·

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