Answers for your questions could come next month

Feb 23, 2010 15:48 GMT  ·  By

At the start of January 2010 Microsoft announced that it was jumping on the W3C SVG bandwagon. The company, once accused of trying to kill Scalable Vector Graphics, is now a member of the SVG Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). And just a few months ahead of joining the SVG Working Group, Microsoft demonstrated a very early, Alpha preview of Internet Explorer 9, the successor of IE8. This coincidence might mean absolutely nothing, or everything, for the Redmond company’s plans related to vector graphics and the future of its browser.

While speculation does exist on whether or not the next generation of Internet Explorer includes support for SVG, Microsoft has failed to breathe a single word on the subject. But the answer to this question might now be very close. The Redmond company confirmed a new session for its web-centric conference MIX09, next month, titled: “SVG: The Past, Present and Future of Vector Graphics for the Web.”

“In addition to our engagement in the SVG Working Group, Doug Schepers, W3C Team Contact for the SVG Working Group, and I are going to be presenting SVG: The Past, Present and Future of Vector Graphics for the Web, at MIX 2010 in Las Vegas this coming March to share help developers understand where SVG is headed. At Microsoft we have been investigating how SVG can deliver graphics for the next generation of the Web Development. Its inclusion in HTML5 promises many opportunities for developers to enhance their sites. We will provide an overview of SVG and how the standard is evolving to support a broader range of applications on the Web,” revealed Patrick Dengler, IE senior program manager.

Of course, the MIX 10 session on SVG could also very well mean nothing for Internet Explorer 9. This, even though the delivery of additional details for IE9 was confirmed for March 2010, as well as the presence of IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch for a keynote address. Here is what the actual synopsis for the presentation reads from the MIX 10 website:

“Join Doug Schepers (W3C) and Patrick Dengler (Microsoft) who will take you through the past, present and future of SVG on the Web. These two members of the W3C SVG Working Group will give a tour of SVG and its capabilities, including how the standard is evolving to target Web Developers who want to build an interoperable experience for users. The talk will give an introduction to how SVG works, as well as show SVG in action.”

What is interesting is at the very end, and I’m referring to the “SVG in action” bit. Schepers and Dengler will be demonstrating browser vector graphics, the question is, of course, which web platform they will be using for their demo. Chances are that it will be Internet Explorer 9, after all, Microsoft intends to demo to the world the progress made since the introduction of IE9 at PDC in Los Angeles the past year.

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW is available for download here (for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008).

Firefox 3.6 Final for Windows is available for download here.

Google Chrome 4.0 Stable is available for download here.

The latest release of Opera 10 is available for download here.