SVG 1.2: 3.2.1 The editable attribute

First, let me say you guys are doing a great job, and thank you.

Niceties aside...

The latest revision of SVG1.2 extends the editable keyword from simple
"text" elements to "flowDiv" (yay), but not "flowSpan" (boo); I see a need
for extending it to flowSpan as well, so there can be embedded unchangable
text within an editable block, or embedded editable text within an
unchangable block (a use-case/example of the latter might be a contract --or
Mad Libs-- where only certain words can be filled in). I don't see this as
crucial, but I also don't see it as difficult to implement. An alternate
scheme, which might be more generally useful, might be to have an element
which does the reverse of "flowLine", preventing a break between "flowDiv"
elements.

The attribute value syntax [editable = "true" | "false"] seems to me to be
too constrictive and divergent from the CSS syntax; if it were a CSS
feature, it might have the format [editable = "editable" | "static"], or
[editable = "text" | "none"], which would allow for future extensions.
Perhaps in an later application-based SVG profile or theme, this could be
applied to primative shapes to say whether they could be changed by the
user, or even UA; alternately, there may be future text considerations that
are not currently taken into account, such as [editable = "singleline" |
"multiline" | "none" ] for flowText, where the "enter" key might change the
focus off the text for "singleline", and for "multiline" might insert a
flowRegionBreak or start a new flowPara.

I'm please to see the new revision of the Spec address keyboard behavior for
inline WYSIWYG editing of text, which is sweet, but was puzzled to see that
it omits mention of backspace/delete; while this is almost certainly an
oversight, I think a defined behaviour for these common text editing
functions is appropriate to include in the Spec. Also, as mentioned above,
the behavior for the "enter" key is not defined.

Also, you do not explicit mention whether "editable" can be a CSS property,
as might be contained in an external or embedded style class.

Thanks-
-Doug

p.s. How do I get in on that supermodel action?

Received on Thursday, 13 November 2003 19:09:34 UTC