Re: ISSUE: what does getStyleProperty return?

It sounds like everyone agrees, and current implementations have done the 
same thing.

If there are no objections, I propose to treat this as a non-substantive 
editorial clarification.  (Maybe roll it into the pending publication.)

For the getStyleProperty entries in both the Picture [1] and AppStructure 
interfaces:

In the description of getStyleProperty "Return value" change:
"the Style Property value as a string, or the empty string if that 
attribute does not have an explicitly set value (see the inheritance model 
for further related discusion)."
to:
"the Style Property value as a string, or the empty string if that Style 
Property has not been explicitly set by a setStyleValue call (or equivalent 
XCF).  For Style Properties that may be set in different modes -- e.g., 
NVDC or percentage -- the return value shall be in the mode in which it was 
set.  For example, if stroke-weight were most recently set to a percentage 
value by a setStyleValue call, then getStyleValue shall return a percentage 
value.  (See the inheritance model for further related discussion)."

Any objections or suggestions?

-Lofton.

[1] 
http://www.w3.org/Graphics/WebCGM/drafts/current-editor-21/WebCGM21-DOM.html#getStyleProperty

At 09:58 AM 1/20/2009 -0800, David Cruikshank wrote:
>I think WebCGM 2.1 already states that if a SP is not explicitly set, it 
>returns a null string, so that shouldn't be a problem.  I interpret 
>"explicitly set" to mean explicitly set by a call to SetStyleProperty (not 
>set by a CGM attribute or control element)
>
>Upon reflecting on the issues involved, I guess I would propose that 
>GetStyleProperty should return the value that was passed with the 
>SetStyleProperty.
>
>Dave
>
>On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 11:51 PM, Weidenbrueck, Dieter 
><<mailto:dweidenbrueck@ptc.com>dweidenbrueck@ptc.com> wrote:
>>
>>All,
>>
>>
>>
>>apparently a small but tricky question.
>>
>>
>>
>>getStyleProperty could return a variety of things:
>>
>>
>>
>>1.      The value used by setStyleProperty
>>This would ensure that a script writer could retrieve values set via the 
>>DOM, and change them. There is an analogy to setTransform/getTransform 
>>here IMO.
>>Open: what should the call return if there was no prior setStyleProperty 
>>call, should it be null or an error?
>>
>>2.      The computed resulting value on the object
>>This is also an interesting value, because it would tell the script 
>>writer about the original state of an object (in case there was no prior 
>>setStyleProperty call) and the resulting value.
>>Issue: if you get resulting values back there is no way to detect whether 
>>this value was in the file, or whether it had been manipulated by script.
>>
>>
>>
>>I personally had always expected 1) because of the analogy to transforms. 
>>Whatever you set you can get back. So the term "style property" to me 
>>refers to the value set by the call, and not to detailed CGM elements. In 
>>fact, it was always my intent to eliminate references to specific CGM 
>>elements as much as possible, because no script writer has a clue how CGM 
>>elements work. Example: there is no straight equivalent to stroke-width 
>>in a CGM file, it affects a variety of things.
>>
>>
>>
>>A small issue is the return value in cases where there is no common 
>>value. This may always happen, no matter what getStyleProperty will 
>>return. Typical for these cases is to return an error or a special value 
>>indicating that there is no common value.
>>
>>
>>
>>Regards,
>>
>>Dieter
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>From: 
>><mailto:public-webcgm-wg-request@w3.org>public-webcgm-wg-request@w3.org 
>>[mailto:public-webcgm-wg-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Lofton Henderson
>>Sent: Dienstag, 20. Januar 2009 01:17
>>To: David Cruikshank
>>Cc: WebCGM WG
>>Subject: Re: ISSUE: what does getStyleProperty return?
>>
>>
>>
>>At 02:49 PM 1/19/2009 -0800, David Cruikshank wrote:
>>
>>On the other hand there isn't any analogous value for raster 
>>intensity...so it has to return the intensity value that was set.
>>
>>
>>Right.  But I don't see that as a problem, since there is only one mode 
>>for setting raster intensity.
>>
>>Responding to your initial idea, I think there is some logic to returning 
>>the value in the mode that corresponds to how the CGM:1999 attributes are 
>>expressed.  But wait!  It is not as simple as it looks:
>>
>>stroke-weight SP:  NVDC or % [as a multiplier on current line/edge widths]
>>LINE/EDGE WIDTH cgm attribute:  VDC, or MM, or ScaleFactor (times 
>>impl-dependent "nominal"), or % (of VDC extent).
>>
>>The APS content in the metafile could have the line/edge width in one of 
>>4 Specification Modes, and it would seem that you would have to select 
>>VDC/NVDC arbitrarily as the "canonical" mode.
>>
>>But the stroke-weight % option might present a wrinkle that determines 
>>the answer of this issue.  Consider this example.
>>
>>BegAPS;
>>line width 5mm;
>>polyline;
>>line width 10mm;
>>polyline;
>>EndAPS
>>
>>If a DOM call sets stroke-weight to 10mm, then both polylines are 
>>10mm.  But if it sets stroke-weight to 200%, then the first polyline is 
>>10mm and the second is 20mm.
>>
>>In the latter case, getSP('stroke-weight') could NOT return an NVDC value 
>>that was meaningful, right?  So I think the answer to the issue needs to 
>>be:  return it in the mode in which it was set (or "empty string" if the 
>>SP was never set).
>>
>>Does anyone see a way around this conclusion, that does not involve a 
>>bunch of weird rules and tedious calculations?
>>
>>Regards,
>>-Lofton.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 12:38 PM, David Cruikshank 
>><<mailto:dvdcruikshank@gmail.com>dvdcruikshank@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>Just shooting from the hip here, but I would expect the return value to 
>>correspond to the common value of the attribute in CGM.  We introduced 
>>these "intensity" or percentage values WebCGM, but for simplicity I think 
>>the return should probably be the value that makes sense when you 
>>consider the same attribute value in CGM.
>>
>>Just my thoughts.
>>
>>Dave
>>
>>
>>On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 9:10 AM, Lofton Henderson 
>><<mailto:lofton@rockynet.com>lofton@rockynet.com> wrote:
>>
>>ISSUE:  does getStyleProperty have to return the SP in the same form in 
>>which it was set?
>>
>>Ref: 
>><http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webcgm-wg/2009Jan/0005.html>http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-webcgm-wg/2009Jan/0005.html
>>
>>Discussion:  Benoit asks the simple question, which we apparently have 
>>never addressed...
>>
>>At 10:59 AM 1/7/2009 -0500, Bezaire, Benoit wrote:
>>
>>[....] I wonder if the implementation has to return the exact same string 
>>that was used to set the attribute.
>>
>>Example for stroke-weight: setStyleProperty("stroke-weight", "200%"), 
>>getStyleProperty("stroke-weight") returns 0.5 (assuming original was 0.25).
>>
>>
>>Question 1:  do any of our past minutes or email address this?
>>
>>Question 2:  has anyone implemented yet?  What have you implemented?
>>
>>RECOMMENDATION:  (none yet.)
>>
>>### end ###