SVG attribute names

Many of the Exchange SVG attribute names contain a '-' character eg.
fill-opacity, stroke-width.  This will complicate implementation somewhat,
since many programming languages do not allow the '-' character in
variable or function names; the character is interpreted as a minus sign. 
This forces implementers to rename problematic attributes and their
associated get/set functions.  As a concrete example, one implementer may
choose to rename fill-opacity to fill_opacity, while another may choose
fillOpacity.  The associated get functions would become getFill_opacity()
and getFillOpacity() respectively.  

The end result is unnecessarily divergent interfaces, which seems contrary
to the philosophy of standardisation. 

A similar problem arises with the SVGFECompositeElement::operator
attribute; in this case, operator is a reserved word.

Rather than force the implementer into renaming attributes, could you
adopt a more rigorous naming convention that recognizes these potential
problems?

Received on Wednesday, 8 March 2000 14:18:21 UTC