Text 'width' and 'height' [was: Happy New Year SVGers]

Chris Lilley wrote:
> I just wanted to wish all SVG users and implementors a Happy New
> Vectorial Year,

Likewise :->

> and keep those reports of new or updated implementations, use cases,
> examples, and any sort of spec feedback coming in!

SVG is a big language (there must be a loooooot of people on the SVG
committee :-) with lots of alternative ways of doing the same thing.
But we are now getting close to finishing the job of converting our
symbol format into SVG. However, we're having trouble with the <text>
element.

We are not just rendering vector symbols, but creating primitives
which the user can modify interactively using our symbol editor. In
the <text> case, it is even possible for the system to change the
content of the text whenever properties/criteria change (macros).
Because of this, it is common to 'reserve' a certain rectangular space
for the <text> element to fit into the rest of the symbol and our
system does wrapping and clipping within this rectangle before
painting the primitive.

But, SVG only specifies 'x' and 'y' attributes on <text>. We need
'width' and 'height' (similar to the <rect> element) to be able to
persistently store our information using SVG. This is especially
important with 'right' and 'bottom' adjusted texts. We also use the
rectangle actively by allowing the user to control the background
color, but we can do without this feature.

We realize that (most?) SVG renders can do without these additional
attributes, but I would expect other applications to have similar
needs as described above. Has anybody stumbled upon this before? Is
there any chance of appending this to the SVG specs? If not, we would
have to resort to some kind of hack :-< Or maybe there is some way of
doing this in the existing specs which we haven't found. Tips and
feedback would be highly appreciated!

---
Jan Aarsaether			jaa@metis.no
METIS GUI Development	
NCR Norge AS

Received on Tuesday, 11 January 2000 04:21:26 UTC