SWF is more of a painters/immediate-mode model and SVG/PDF/etc. is a retained mode that defines a set of objects. Different use cases for sure. I've written SWF

SWF is more of a painters/immediate-mode model and SVG/PDF/etc. is a retained mode that defines a set of objects. Different use cases for sure. I've written SWF->vector conversion tools, and the formats are quite different.