Comma delimited lists in SVG

The current XML Schema Datatypes working draft has support for list types, 
but only for space separated list.  Apparently, support for other or arbitrary
delimiters was considered and was rejected (at least for version 1.0).  There
are several places in SVG where comma separated lists are used where
space-separated lists would be usable.  The use of space-separated lists
would increase the effectiveness of Schema validation of SVG documents
and compatibility with anticipated support for other XML list types subsequent
to finalization of XML Schema.

Comma separated lists are used in the font-style, font-variant, font-weight,
unicode-range and font-stretch attributes of the <font> element.  All the possible items
have no embedded spaces so use of a space-separated list should be acceptible.
(Note, for the unicode-range attribute, urage is used as the pattern for subsequent
entries, I believe this should be urange).

The system-required attribute of the <switch> element is described as a comma
separated list of an enumeration of values (none of which contain embedded spaces).
The DTD fragment for the attribute shows it a NMTOKEN which would not accept
a comma delimited list.  If a space separated list was specified, the NMTOKENS
type could be used.

The x, y, dx, dy, rotate and attribute of <tspan> take either comma or space delimited lists.

The rgb format of the color datatype contains a comma-separated list like "rgb(255,255,255).  
However, in this case the structure of the datatype could not effectively be constrained 
by Schema datatypes and compatibility with CSS is required.

With the exception of the color datatype, I'd suggest that the definition of all these attributes 
be changed to strictly space-separated lists.

Received on Wednesday, 8 March 2000 15:03:29 UTC