Bézier arcs in FSDL
It now looks as if the Frogans Player and the Frogans Slide Description Language (FSDL) 3.0 will support Bézier arcs. If you take a look at the current FSDL specifications at frogans.com, you’ll see that already in version 2.1 of FSDL you can plot points to create straight-line vectors that you could use for making outlines, color or gradient fills, and shape masks. You could also create rectangles and ovals for the same purposes using a simpler set of commands.
In FSDL 2.1 you plot the points of your vector within the <COORDS> attribute in the <SETDRAW> element by their x,y coordinates on a 100 x 100 grid. It’s a follow-the-dots approach to drawing that results in a form composed of straight lines joined end to end. Every dot is like a pointy corner. Bézier arc support gives you the capacity to smooth out each point to the degree that you wish by allowing you to plot “control” points along your vector.
In Adobe Illustrator, the vector art application of choice for most of us, this is done interactively with the mouse. It’s a lot quicker and easier than coding by hand in FSDL. Fortunately, there are people who write third-party plug-ins to enhance Illustrator’s export capabilities, and I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before someone produces a plug-in capable of producing FSDL-ready code directly from Illustrator.
Vectors can also provide a means to create data-driven images like charts and graphs in FSDL dynamically through server applications. By the same token one could conceivably develop a system for generating editable blocks of text in custom typestyles through writing the vector data descriptions for each typographical character into an FSDL document.
One thing to keep in mind is that a file of complex vector data might be larger than the equivalent image in a format such as JPG, GIF or PNG, and there will be set limits in the Frogans Player on the size a frogans (the FSDL document plus resources). So although simple vectors can prove to be very efficient rendering images, vector data in some cases won’t be a judicious replacement for bitmapped image files.