<link> and <param> in SVG (SVG ACTION-2534)

Hi, HTML WG-

Like the HTML WG, the SVG WG is interested in a certain consistency 
between SVG and HTML, to make authoring and implementing easier and more 
intuitive.  To that end, we're looking for opinions on adding a couple 
of features to SVG matching some in HTML that most authors would already 
be familiar with, and we are soliciting opinions about the best approach.

We want to make it easier to link to external CSS resources, and to pass 
parameters to referenced resources.


Through an oversight, the only specified way to link to an external CSS 
stylesheet is through an XML PI.  While this works okay, it's not the 
best way to do it, and is different than the way HTML does it.  We're 
looking at a couple of options:

1) we add @xlink:href to <svg:style>
2) we add a new element, like <link>, to SVG (I've already shown that 
this sometimes works when the <link> is in the XHTML NS [1], but that 
isn't specified anywhere, and isn't intuitive)


Regarding passing parameters, SVG has never had a mechanism for this. 
We would like to add one.  Again, we can either create a new element, or 
we could repurpose the <param> element from the HTML <object>, for use 
in SVG.


Our preference is to reuse those element names, because authors are 
familiar with them, but to put them in the SVG NS, for use in standalone 
SVG documents (and in SVG-only UAs).  We realize that this may have the 
potential to cause problems for some compound-document parsing 
scenarios, so we decided to put the question to the HTML WG, to see if 
there are substantive technical challenges to this approach.

Thoughts?


[1] http://www.schepers.cc/svg/style/external-link-xhtml.svg


Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, SVG and WebApps WGs

Received on Friday, 1 May 2009 07:19:05 UTC