Schepers.cc

The Workshop

SVG Tools

There are a number of graphics editors out there that export to SVG (such as Adobe Illustrator), or are designed specifically with SVG in mind (such as Jasc WebDraw). But I'm not an artist, I'm a programmer. What tools do I use?

• TextPad :: the best text editor I've seen. It has a tabbed multiple-document interface, allows regular expressions, recordable macros, and a “Clip Library“ (basically, a sidebar that lets you choose and insert code templates). This little gem is amazingly customizable, and their Web site has an “Add-ons“ section were users can share their time-savers for free. I'm working on a couple of Clip Libraries for SVG, which I'll post to their site when I feel they're done; you can download them from here for now. I have one for SVG syntax, and one for SVG DOM & JavaScript; please keep in mind that they are a work in progress, but I hope they help.
• VMerge :: while Textpad has almost everything I want --including the ability to compare source files-- I like to have a color-coder, side-by-side view diff utility. If someone knows how to do this in TextPad, please let me know.
• SVG-Whiz :: well, it's not released yet, but I'm making a no-nag shareware visual SVG editor, written in SVG and JavaScript. In fact, I used the tool itself to design much of its own interface. How cool is that!?

SVG Projects

I've been playing with SVG for over two and a half years now. This is the first graphics language I've really gotten into up to my elbows, and it's been a lot of fun, as well as a great learning experience. The range of SVG's usefulness has gone beyond my expectations; when I started it, I just intended to learn enough to make my online comic (see below), but along the way I designed a charting package for my workplace and saw even more potential in other tasks. Since then, I have started using SVG and EcmaScript as my primary platform for development. The advantage of making text-based Web applications, with at least a move toward platform independence, is extremely compelling.

I've been a fairly active participant in the SVG-Developers mailing list, and have learned much of what I know there; it is one of the most friendly, helpful, on-topic lists I've ever known.

Personal Projects and Experiments

I don't put most of my stuff on the Web, for the most part because a lot of what I do is simple experimentation, and refining it to the point where I feel it's fit for public consumption would double the amount of work involved; organizing and documenting it enough to put on a page would cost even more effort. I also have several projects that I intend to sell, so I can't really post them. But I will try to note here several things that I think are interesting enough to bother with:

• Textflow Hourglass :: I whipped this up recently to demonstrate animated textFlow flowRegions. It's very simple --no script and only one line of SMIL. Requires ASV6.
• Linguistics Suite :: I'm studying Linguistics, so I naturally wanted to marry together two of my main interests. I am in the process of writing a set of applications that aid in learning linguistics, including a Natural Language Syntax Tree, an animated head showing how speech is made, and a virtual keyboard. I presented a poster on this project at SVG Open 2003
• SVG-Whiz :: an online SVG editor written in SVG and JavaScript. Still in beta, but making progress. One thing I really like about this is that all the tools and controls use SVG syntax, so it teaches newbies how to use SVG graphically and syntactically.
• The Bubble Factory :: I'm attempting to automate the process of making text bubbles for my online SVG comic; when I'm done, I hope to have an easy way to make a variety of text bubbles, thought bubbles, et cetera, with different text styles and fonts, using my patented BubbleWrap™ technology.
• Solitaire :: This is really buggy, but is the beginnings of a solitaire game in SVG. I was caught playing solitaire (filthy habit) during a lecture at SVG Open 2003, with the exhoration that, "That's not SVG!" So I set out over the next few days to redeem myself. Sets of matching cards are moved together by inserting them in nested groups. The deck is generated dynamically, and the cards are semantically rich: each card uses the text values for rank and suite; I use the SVGFont representation of the Unicode glyphs for 'spades', 'clubs', 'diamonds', and 'hearts'.
• SVG Colors :: Here are some tests and little apps that I've done relating to colors in SVG. There is a handy custom combo dropdown that lets you search for names or parts of names, and a dynamic color chart that copies the hex value of the color chosen to your clipboard (in IE, that is).
• Magna Charter :: an SVG charting package I designed for my last workplace, largely on my own time; unfortunately, it was never used, as my company went into emergency mode, but now I'm free to do with it what I will. It's fairly full-featured, though it still needs some work--it now produces interactive Bar Charts, Line Graphs, Histograms, Pie Charts, and Scatterplots in a variety of styles (2D, 3D, and various other pretty effects).
• There are a few directories where I sometimes post stuff to my site to make sure that it works on a server, or when collaborating, helping, or being helped. I won't bother to catalog them, but you're welcome to browse around the scrapheap (with no guarantee that the stuff there works, or even that it's mine): Testbed folder.

Group Projects

• SVG-Wiki :: started by Niklas Gustavsson of protocol7.com, this is in many ways the collected wisdom of the SVG-Developers' mailing list. A Wiki is a sort of collaborative FAQ, and many interesting topics and answers to tricky SVG problems can be found here; I've written a good deal in this.
• SVGUI :: a SourceForge project to produce an object-oriented Graphical User Interface using SVG; a lot of potential in this one, and it seems it will be ongoing. Started by SVG luminary Kevin Lindsey. I haven't had the time to participate as much as I'd like. Update: While I think this is a worthy project, I feel so out of it that I can't claim that I'm really a part of it; however, I'll keep the link here as a pointer for other to join the good fight.
• SVG C# DOM :: judging from the upsurge in interest in Microsoft's .NET platform, several of us thought it would be worthwhile to solidify an SVG DOM interface for C#; this is another SourceForge project, and is a good excuse to play with .NET, C#, XML, and SVG. While this one has some activity, lately I haven't had the time, again. Update: While I think this is a worthy project, I feel so out of it that I can't claim that I'm really a part of it; however, I'll keep the link here as a pointer for other to join the good fight.
• Boffo Comics :: an online comic book I'm doing with a couple of friends, Tom and Heli. Our first comic is a secret agent/adventure comic.Update: Sadly, now defunct, and left here for properity and/or phoenix-like behavior.

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