Re: Grid In 1.2?

Hi Chris,

    The really important bit is that there is at least one
piece of needed information that the viewer currently doesn't
export - namely the width of the widest word in a text element.
It is extremely painful for script to figure this out, even
though with flowText the viewer must be able to efficiently
calculate it.

    If this information is properly exposed (as say a DOM
method), then writing grid in script (or anything else) becomes
pretty simple.  However given the wide need for this feature
I would find it as unfortunate that 1.2 doesn't include grid as
that 1.1 didn't include flow text.

    Let's face it as soon as SVG did 'text' (as opposed to
graphics that looked like text) - it needed flowText.  I would
strongly argue that as soon as it does flowText it needs grids.

Chris Peto wrote:

> I could use this too, but I think we are mixing two many things together
> here.  SVG is vector graphics on top of this should be a higher level
> that then uses the vector graphics to make things like forms.  The
> viewers are already too big and we need to start separating application
> from graphics to create a smaller footprint.  If you want more then
> there can be a separate module on top of SVG.
> 
> Mit freundlichen Grüßen/Regards
> Chris Peto
> Freelance System Development
> ------------------------------------
> Resource Solutions
> Germany
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> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-svg-request@w3.org [mailto:www-svg-request@w3.org] On Behalf
> Of Cameron McCormack
> Sent: Donnerstag, 8. Juli 2004 10:05
> To: www-svg@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Grid In 1.2?
> 
> 
> 
> Doug Schepers:
> 
>>There has been much talk in the comunity about the need for some sort 
>>of table or grid layout mechanism in SVG. FlowText is great, and I 
>>think that allowing images in it will be a fascinating feature, but I 
>>don't think that it alone will satisfy most authors' needs for a 
>>relative layout system.
> 
> 
> +1 grids
> 
> A simple example of where a grid would be useful is a simple form layout
> with text labels and text entry boxes, like this:
>              _____________
>   E-mail:   |_____________|
>              _____________
>   Password: |_____________|
> 
> You want the text entry boxes (assume they are just rects for
> simplicity) to have the same x coordinates.  This x coordinate should be
> just to the right of the widest text label.  You also want each label to
> be centered vertically with respect to its text field.
> 
> I can imagine grid cells working as flow regions.
> 
>   <grid vertical-align="middle">
>     <gridRow>
>       <gridCell>
>         <flowPara>E-mail:</flowPara>
>       </gridCell>
>       <gridCell>
>         <flowPara>
>           <flowImage>
>             <rect width="20em" height="1.5em"/>
>           </flowPara>
>         </flowLine>
>       </gridCell>
>     </gridRow>
>     <gridRow>
>       <gridCell>
>         <flowPara>E-mail:</flowPara>
>       </gridCell>
>       <gridCell>
>         <flowImage>
>           <rect width="20em" height="1.5em"/>
>         </flowPara>
>       </gridCell>
>     </gridRow>
>   </grid>
> 
> (Maybe some of those flow* elements are redundant; I haven't looked at
> them closely enough to know which ones are required and which ones can
> directly contain content.)
> 
> I don't see any real impediment to using an HTML-style algorithm for
> cell width determination.
> 
> Cameron
>

Received on Thursday, 8 July 2004 06:05:04 UTC