Re: Making it possible to use an <svg> root in text/html

Henri Sivonen wrote:
>  * Make an element with the local name 'meta' in the SVG namespace and 
> with an attribute charset in no namespace conforming as a child of a 
> root <svg> element in text/html.
> 
>  * The above formulation requires <!DOCTYPE html> for <svg> root 
> element, which *would be well-formed* but *not valid* in XML due to the 
> html vs. svg name mismatch.

The problem that the SVG WG have described they are trying to address, 
at least in internal discussions at Opera, is that people will produce 
otherwise conforming SVG documents, which could in theory be served as 
XML, but due to the failure to properly configure their server, somehow 
end up being served as text/html.  This is basically an error condition 
that they are trying to address more gracefully.  Such content would not 
include either a DOCTYPE or a meta element.

Besides, the presence of the HTML DOCTYPE should be a clear indicator 
that the file is intended to be HTML, not SVG.  But by allowing such 
non-HTML content to include the HTML DOCTYPE and the meta element, 
suddenly we've slipped down the slope from handling an edge case error, 
to legitimising the abuse of text/html as a dumping ground for non-HTML 
content.

-- 
Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software
http://lachy.id.au/
http://www.opera.com/

Received on Wednesday, 4 March 2009 13:08:20 UTC