Re: Extension mechanisms in SVG Full 1.2?

Risto Pohjonen wrote:
> I have been investigating possible ways to extend SVG with certain
> application logic level elements and attributes. In addition to foreign
> private data in foreign namespaces and the foreignObject element, SVG
> 1.1 seems to provide means to add private elements and attributes to the
> DTD. This sounds promising for my purposes, so I went to see what SVG
> 1.2 drafts have to say about it. Unfortunately, I did not find reference
> to these extension mechanisms in 2005-04-13 and 2004-10-27 drafts.
> Therefore, I would like to inquire the status of these mechanisms in SVG
> 1.2. Are they expected to change a lot? My primary concern of course
> being that if I go with SVG 1.1 now, do I run the risk of being
> hopelessly incompatible with 1.2 later...

The only extension mechanisms were always to use foreign namespaces or 
foreignObject. The DTD part was just there so that you could get your 
document to validate against a DTD after you'd done your extensions. 
DTDs however are useless and harmful, and should die at the earliest. 
Don't trouble yourself with them, they will only get in your way and 
bring no value.

SVG 1.2 will of course still understand DTDs (since it's built on XML) 
but there will be no DTD for 1.2 and no public ID to place in the DOCTYPE.

So don't use DTDs, you don't need them. Just use foreign namespaces.

-- 
Robin Berjon
   Senior Research Scientist
   Expway, http://expway.com/

Received on Wednesday, 10 August 2005 14:15:44 UTC