On Sun, 31 Aug 2003 18:53:01 -0400 Rob <lau@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Sunday 31 August 2003 14:14, RTaylor wrote: > > Adobe's viewer is free... so's Corels. Installation's no more > > complex than installing the Flash viewer. Both companies > > offer > > Ease of installation doesn't count as much when every proprietary > browser (and most Linux distributions) comes with Flash > preinstalled. I've had to install it on every linux distribution I've used. > > As far as audio goes... Real's Helix project gives you the > > http://www.realnetworks.com/products/producer/ > > https://www.helixcommunity.org/2002/intro/potential-projects > > tools to do anything you need at the same level of quality > > that any other system on the 'net can give you. > > Let me know when it's integrated with the SVG tools, with > synchronization and all, the way MP3 and other audio formats are > integrated with SWF. Have you actually looked at what people > are doing with Flash these days? These guys are visual artists, > and they don't want to hear about SMIL and interleaved MPEG-4. > They want to hear about "File/Save As", and they're willing to > pay (and put up with proprietary formats) for it. Actually, I've looked quite a lot. Have you looked at what you can do with Corels SmartDraw? > > It's as capable and usable as SWF... There's absolutely no > > reason not to use it. > > When I see someone do something as nifty as the homestar or > campchaos.com stuff using the hodgepodge of tools and formats > you're describing, I'll believe that. I'm describing some pretty competent commercial tools. From both sides of the linux wall. You didn't check any of those links did you? > > Any artist worth his salt researches his tools to a fairly > > high degree. {Tho' that does seem to be going out of favor} > > Those who do will come to the conclusion (currently a correct > one) that they'll reach 90% or more of users using Flash and.... > substantially less for SVG. And Macromedia will sell another Just because it's not been implemented doesn't mean the resources to implement it aren't there. What do you think's getting done with all of the software that is capable of authoring SVG? Look at the support linux audio gets as compared to win. Same story... Folk get that "only halfway knowledgeable" rumor sort of thing that "oh you're wasting your time with that system" going and no one bothers to research it any further. Windows has much more software and it's a lot easier, etc... Skinny Puppy, Einsturzende, Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk made careers on much less than is available in linux now. > $500 worth of Windows or Mac-only software. Just as I think the > PNG guys were short-sighted in trying to introduce another > unsupported format (MNG) for animations, rendering PNG an > incomplete alternative to GIF, I think that if the SVG guys are MNG is a far superior format to anything we've currently got once the authoring software either gets a bit more complete or drops to a price that folk can afford... It will catch on. I doubt many folk out there give a damn what extension's attached to their file. > really trying to replace Flash (rather than just another > graphics metafile format) they will need to find a way to > integrate other media that makes sense to artists, not just to > nerds like you and me. As I said "most artists research their tools to a really high degree {large extent, whatever}" {That that sort of thing's gone out of favor in favor of "do only what the customer requires" or "always follow the path of least resistance" is sort of tragic and hopefully short term. Art will come back once folk get tired of being automatons and doing what they're told.} I "nerd that I am" am pretty typical of old-school artists. Rembrandt, Pollock, Ernst, DaVinci, TD, Puppy...
