*please* don't let it slip again :)

Alexandre

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dr. Olaf Hoffmann Date: 2009/8/27 Subject: Radial gradients in SVG Full To: www-svg@...157..., klaus.foerster***uibk.ac.at

Hello,

(just my personal observations)

SVG has already a radial gradient for a long time, a simplified form is available in SVG tiny 1.2 too.

I think, this canvas method creates more a cone than a radial gradient. But I'm not sure, because as far as I have seen, it does not define the range for 'w' (omega?) within the formulas (looks like something to fix in the draft). The draft itself claims, that this creates a cone (why do they call it createRadialGradient? This may create some confusion with the SVG radialGradient)

To avoid conflicts with the existing radial gradient, one could call it coneGradient ... I think, there are other proposals to improve gradients as well and to allow more sophisticated color distributions. We will see, what will happen.

Do you have specific applications for such a cone gradient? Is it of general importance to have such a specific type? Could be interesting to gather a larger collection of different types of specific gradients types to see how to organise this in a useful way... Is it useful for SVG and for authors to create for every specific type of gradient a new element or is there a more generic/elegant method to define gradient like entities with a set of well-considered element+attribute collection?

I have several applications for arbitrary color distributions. Up to now it is not trivial to generate an arbitrary distribution using the linear or the radial gradient. And I think, such a cone gradient is just another sample for another specific gradient type - and is typically less useful than the linear and the radial gradient to approximate such an arbitrary distribution with some number crunching. Wouldn't it be more interesting to have a general and simple mechanism to describe a color distribution without the requirement of heavy number crunching for authors?

Olaf