Understanding post-multiplication in the SVG 1.1 Sepecification

I have been having trouble understanding some of the basic matrix 
operations in the SVG 1.1 specification. As an example I will use the 
operation:

   matrix.Scale(scaleFactor)


According to the specification, it says "Post-multiplies a uniform scale 
transformation on the current matrix and returns the resulting matrix." 
[1] Without any doubt the uniform scale matrix will look like:

   [ scale   0     0 ]
   [   0   scale   0 ]
   [   0     0     1 ]

We will call this matrix "scaleMatrix." My area of confusion comes when 
you talk about postmultiply versus premultiply. Clearly there are only 
two options for the operation matrix.Scale(scaleFactor):

   resultMatrix = scaleMatrix * matrix

or

   resultMatrix = matrix * scaleMatrix


According to Chris Liley's document[2], "Premultiply corresponds to 
postconcatenate and postmultiply corresponds to preconcatenate.". Then 
in his example he shows the following:

   "Alternatively, M2 may be preconcatenated with M1. This will cause M2
    to be applied first:

       p' = M1 • M2 • p

So, if "M2 is preconcatenated with M1" and in the example the places M1 
to the left (pre) side of the multiplication operator, I assume this 
means that when a uniform scale is post-multiplied onto an existing 
matrix that the operation would look like:

   resultMatrix = scaleMatrix * matrix


Or in matrices:

   [ scale   0     0 ]   [ matrix.a  matrix.c  matrix.e ]
   [   0   scale   0 ] * [ matrix.b  matrix.d  matrix.f ]
   [   0     0     1 ]   [    0         0          1    ]

Which results in:

   [ (scale * matrix.a) (scale * matrix.c) (scale * matrix.e) ]
   [ (scale * matrix.b) (scale * matrix.d) (scale * matrix.f) ]
   [         0                  0                  1          ]


But ASV6 and Batik do not agree with this interpretation. Clearly I must 
be wrong, so am I simply misunderstanding pre versus post multiply-- or 
is my matrix math wacky?

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/coords.html#DOMInterfaces
[2] http://www.ii.uib.no/undervisning/kurs/v01/i291/i291/geom_sn.pdf

Thanks,
Jeff Rafter

Received on Monday, 7 February 2005 21:07:03 UTC