geographic coordinates

I was pleased to see the Geographic Coordinate Systems section of the
SVG 1.1 spec:

http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/coords.html#GeographicCoordinates

One thing that strikes me as odd about it, however, is the notion that
the metadata applies only to the SVG element and therefore to the map as
a whole.  While this is useful, it would also be useful to be able to
store geographic metadata for objects inside the SVG document. 

The current approach seems to see SVG only as an export format for GIS,
rather than as a potentially equal partner.  The notion that I might do
work in SVG and then export geographic metadata from that SVG to a GIS
system offers a lot of capability that doesn't seem addressed by this
section of 1.1.

I'm guessing, however, that this same approach using the metadata child
element would be appropriate for smaller chunks of SVG.  I'd appreciate
clarification in that regard.

(I'm also not thrilled about the RDF wrappers around the CRS metadata,
but that's another issue.)

Received on Thursday, 20 November 2003 11:46:00 UTC