Re: SVG 1.2 Comment: vector effects

On 24 Nov 2004, at 00:09, Ian Hickson wrote:

>>>> - there is a need to assign multiple strokes and fills to an object
>>>> (drawing tools had this for long time)
>>>
>>> This could be done in the same way that the CSS working group is
>>> handling multiple backgrounds on elements, namely, let the 'fill' and
>>> 'stroke' properties take multiple comma-separated values.
>>
>> That was certainly one of the ideas WG members had as well. It works 
>> for
>> fill, but stroke is not controlled purely by stroke property. 
>> Typically
>> one wants to change either stroke-width or stroke-dash-array as well.
>
> Allowing those properties to take multiple values as well would address
> this (and is how 'background' is being handled in CSS).

This has a number of problems.

- It makes it much harder to use tools like XSLT.
- It adds another micro-syntax to the language that implementers have
   to handle.
- It makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to animate
   different sub-properties or individual entries in the properties
   independently (without adding a whole set of language features just
   to do this).

> While I now understand why you feel these new features are important, I
> still think the current proposed way of doing them is hugely over-
> engineered and overly complex. It allows shapes to have other paths
> arbitrarily applied to them, for instance.

Actually the stylistic effects are fairly easy to implement, and IMO are
an obvious extension to the existing rendering model. It is also a nice
match to the raster effects.

>
> I mean, come on. If you want a shared edge on a map, just use one path
> element, with one stroke, instead of having the edge drawn by both
> elements.

And how do you know which of the two sides you are in when you
put your mouse over the object?

>
>
>>>> - all of the above should integrate with animation (e.g, path
>>>>   animation) and not cause substantial file size bloat.
>>>
>>> The two proposals I list above (a new unit and allowing multiple
>>> values on two propeties) seem to handle this.

Your proposals don't handle animation very well.

Dean

Received on Tuesday, 23 November 2004 15:12:20 UTC