Re: SVG 1.2 Comment: 4 Flowing text and graphics

On Wednesday, November 03, 2004 7:19 PM, Ian Hickson wrote:
> On Wed, 3 Nov 2004, Denis Bohm wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > It seems bad to me to be requiring a lowest-common-denominator
> > > > > algorithm for line breaking.
> > > >
> > > > This is because you don't care about graphical interoperability
> > > > between user-agents.  This is exactly why it's appropriate for the
> > > > SVG WG (where this is extremely important) to define this.
> > >
> > > I do not understand why it is important for SVG rendering agents to
> > > all have the same line breaking.
> >
> > That seems to be the whole issue with this long thread.  SVG is
> > presentation level - it is defined so that the output is consistent in
> > all implementations.  That is what SVG is all about.  If you don't want
> > presentation level then you need to use some other representation (and
> > possibly a transformation into SVG to view it).
>
> CSS is presentation-level too, it is also defined so that the output is
> consistent in all implementations. But there is no reason for the
> consistency to be taken as far as line breaking. Why would it matter if
> one user saw:
>
>     The Springfield Nuclear
>     Power Plant is closed for
>     rennovation.
>
> ...and another saw:
>
>    The Springfield Nuclear
>    Power is closed
>    for rennovation.
>
> ...?
>
> I don't mind specs being specific and defining details to ensure
> interoperability, indeed I'm all for it. But there are cases where it
> matters, and cases where it doesn't. The exact details of word-wrap are a
> case where it really doesn't matter most of the time, and in the rare
> cases where it does matter, you can use distinct <text> elements.

It makes a huge difference when you are doing graphics - where the whole
point is where things appear.  There will be other elements on the page that
interact visually with the text.  That is why breaking in SVG must be
consistent across user agents.  That is why there is exact font control
also.

Received on Thursday, 4 November 2004 03:37:04 UTC