Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#1

Post by lousy_sysadmin » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 9:48 AM UTC

I've been playing around with Inkscape for a while now to create vector image as its one of the easiest solution for Retina-esque site. However I'm having a hard time finding image hosting that support SVG.

My question is, why is it so hard for image hosting service to support native SVG, instead of converting an image to other format. Would like to hear the limitations and challenges that comes with it.

http://imgur.userecho.com/topic/23630-svg-support/

Re: Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#2

Post by lsiebert » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 9:59 AM UTC

It's not hard. However, I'd note that IE didn't have built in support until 2011, and the first browser with native svg support was Konqueror in 2004, whereas gif and jpeg have been around for a lot longer.

Isn't SVG just XML? I'd assume you could host it that way.

Re: Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#3

Post by KorvinSzanto » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 10:12 AM UTC

lsiebert wrote: post #2

It's not hard. However, I'd note that IE didn't have built in support until 2011, and the first browser with native svg support was Konqueror in 2004, whereas gif and jpeg have been around for a lot longer. Isn't SVG just XML? I'd assume you could host it that way.

It's XML based, really only uses a different schema.

Re: Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#4

Post by lmm » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 10:23 AM UTC

XML being XML, it's hard-to-impossible to host SVG without allowing people to store arbitrary XML on your service, which sooner or later is going to be abused.

Re: Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#5

Post by nwh » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 10:35 AM UTC

I'd considered making one some time ago, but gave up when I realised that somebody had already purchased http://s.vg/.

Re: Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#6

Post by wisty » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 10:45 AM UTC

IE6. XML viruses.

Re: Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#7

Post by timrogers » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 10:54 AM UTC

I'm guessing you could maybe host it with Gists, using the raw link? Although the content type headers might be an issue...

Re: Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#8

Post by pre » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 11:03 AM UTC

It's not hard, probably the image hosts concerned merely didn't think to include it.

You can upload svg files with the right content type to Amazon S3 without trouble, is that not good enough?

Re: Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#9

Post by mbq » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 11:04 AM UTC

_Arbitrary_ SVG is a security/privacy problem -- it may inject JS or exploit quirks in rendering to manipulate site contents, import external images and fonts, or simply be a render bomb. And it is hard to filter out those problems.

Re: Ask HN:Whats the problem with SVG?

#10

Post by nwh » Sun, Jan 27, 2013, 11:16 AM UTC

mbq wrote: post #9

_Arbitrary_ SVG is a security/privacy problem -- it may inject JS or exploit quirks in rendering to manipulate site contents, import external images and fonts, or simply be a render bomb. And it is hard to filter out those problems.

You could just have a dedicated domain for it, then there's no risk of XSS. It's doable, but it would be rather fragile.

The render bomb point is a little trickier, as you can use some detailed filters to crash most browsers. Heck, even a single simple shape will crash any version of iOS.