Thanks! (from one of the helpful prodders)

Although you mention it as a stop-gap measure, why shouldn't it be possible for other companies to add (or replace) functionality in Firefox? Let built-in open source implementations compete with other open source implementations and/or proprietary commercial implementations. In complex areas like SVG (or MathML, my personal favorite), it is pretty much impossible for any one implementation to be the best at everything. It seems like a win-win situation to me.

I'd like to see support for all non-HTML languages (SVG, MathML, ChemML, or ...) be pluggable by both open source and closed source solutions. Installers for such solutions should, with the user's permission, be able to override built-in support. Firefox should supply a "switcher" or preferences to allow the user to select among available plugins.

Although open sourcers might wish to have the best support for everything in the Firefox box, that's not going to happen any time soon.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I think that somewhere in about:config the plugin to use for a mime type can be changed. I haven't gotten that deep into it since I only use the built-in SVG rendering and Adobe SVG viewer 6.

There's no reason not to allow the kind of extension that you're talking about, but I don't see it as something the average user would take advantage of. A MathML developer (for example) probably has a strong desire to get the best rendering they can and also to make sure that their source renders in many viewers. The end user, on the other hand, might not even know what MathML is. They only (and should only) care about the material being presented through that medium. When it doesn't work, some users will try to figure out why, but most will just move on to something else related to their original goal.

That said, giving users the choice is worthwhile since the small group of users interested is very interested. They are the content creators and the advocates of the standards and the software. Making their job easier benefits all the users indirectly.

Hi Rob,

You are right, most people won't care. However, a user viewing a website that contains Content MathML or is blind and wants the math read aloud via their screen reader will care. These are both things that Mozilla's built-in MathML support does not currently do. Our MathPlayer s/w, which we provide for free, does both of these things for IE right now. We'd very much like to do the same in Mozilla/Firefox.

Although MathML support may seem like a narrow concern, all high school students are supposed to learn math and fully half of a typical university's depts. have math in their content, much of which is online. We have had nearly a million downloads of MathPlayer. And that's just for math and MathML. It wouldn't surprise me if a similar situation exists for many other aspects of online functionality.

Many times, it won't be the end user that cares about this directly but the content provider. The content provider wants their users to have a good experience and will have to make sure that the right plugin is available.

Paul

[...] SVG Switcher Update for Firefox 1.5 Beta [...]

Some ideas for useful additions to your already very nice extension: http://wiki.svg.org/index.php?title=FireFox_SVG-specific_extensions

Hi,
I find it frustrating that FireFox does not come the symbols font. I'm using SuSe9.2 Linux. The last time I tried to install the symbols font all pages printed with math symbols instead of text. My son, running Windows didn't have any problems.

mathML without the symbol font doesn't work.

Doesn't want to work with Firefox>1.5 :-(

With the Nightly Tester extension it works after all on Firefox 1.5.0.1

Hi stelt,
I don't get why it's not upgrading for some people. I updated the version info back on February 6 (to 1.5.0.1). I thought I must've forgot to upload or something, but it seems like sometimes Firefox doesn't want to get the latest. Tonight when I tried to install Fx first told me that it was only compatible with versions 1.0-1.5. Then after replacing the XPI a couple times it seems to work. Subversion says the source code is the same as before.

My only guess is a caching issue. If you can't install directly, try right-clicking, choose "Save As..." then use "File Open" in Firefox to open the XPI. That's when Fx changed it's mind for me...

I have to look at the auto-update thing.

btw, Nightly Tester looks really handy.

Get more people to use it by having it show up on http://addons.mozilla.org/quicksearch.php?q=svg&section=A

Make it a more handy tool for both SVG content viewers and producers, through problem solving/dodging ?: http://wiki.svg.org/FireFox_SVG-specific_extensions#Several_other_SVG_ideas_for_A_or_THE_extension

usability detail nagging (in dutch i'd call it "mierenneuken"):

proposal visual representations of the 2 options in the toolbar:
"
SVG rendering: native
SVG rendering: plug-in
"

the "SVG" part could be just the title of the bar, big colorful letters to easily spot, maybe like http://www.svgopen.org/2005/pict/logo_shad.svg

the "native"/"plug-in" being the usual button/dropdown

explaining:
-I guess to most people it's not a switch between SVG enabled and disabled, but between tastes of SVG. so A/B instead of on/off.
"Fx SVG enabled" and "Fx SVG disabled" are mini-sentences to be read and understood everytime, where i think my wording gives instant recognition.
-the blue circle and red dot don´t mean anything to me. If you wanted it to represent on/off i´d go with traffic light or power button/switch analogies, but as i said i think it´s more an A/B option really. What it does do well for me is a way to easily locate the button/bar between all my other bars, the function i just proposed to the "SVG" part.

Further maybe add an "about" at the right. Saying something like built by..., website..., SVG is..., website... (a little self- and SVG promotion can't hurt i guess)

All my (amateur) remarks are of course because i use your svg-switcher all the time and love it.

Handy tool. Thanks.