Re: [SVGMobile12] SVGT12-207: "positioning properties" and other incorrect prose regarding CSS

Ian,
This is the official response from the SVG WG to your Last Call comment
at the following URL:
  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-svg/2005Dec/0251.html

We agree with your comment and simplified the write-up. Now we simply
reference CSS's rules for replaced elements rather than describe those
rules redundantly (and potentially incorrectly). Here is the new text:

------------
7.2 The initial viewport

The SVG user agent negotiates with its parent user agent to determine
the viewport into which the SVG user agent can render the document. In
some circumstances, SVG content will be embedded (by reference or
inline) within a containing document. This containing document might
include attributes, properties and/or other parameters (explicit or
implicit) which specify or provide hints about the dimensions of the
viewport for the SVG content. SVG content itself optionally can provide
information about the appropriate viewport region for the content via
the 'width' and 'height' XML attributes on the 'svg' element. The
negotiation process uses any information provided by the containing
document and the SVG content itself to choose the viewport location and
size.

If the parent document format defines rules for referenced or embedded
graphics content, then the negotiation process is determined by the
parent document format specification. If the parent document is styled
with CSS, then the negotiation process must follow the CSS rules for
replaced elements. If there is no parent document, the SVG user agent
must use the 'width' and 'height' attributes on the 'svg' element as the
width and height for the viewport.
------------

Thank you very much for your thorough review and excellent feedback.
Please tell us within two weeks if you are not satisfied with this
response.

Jon Ferraiolo
SVG WG

--------------



From: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> 
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 15:14:45 +0000 (UTC)
To: www-svg@w3.org 
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.62.0512281507300.7669@dhalsim.dreamhost.com> 


Section 7.2 The initial viewport says:

# the 'svg' element must be treated as a replaced element in a CSS
context

This is good.

It also says:

# Under these conditions, [...] so the positioning properties establish 
# the viewport's width.
#
# Similarly, if CSS-compatible height properties [...] properties on the

# referencing element (or rootmost svg element for inline SVG content), 
# then these positioning properties establish the viewport's height; 
# otherwise, the height attribute on the 'svg' element establishes the 
# viewport's height.

The root-most 'svg' element should be defined as being a replaced
element 
in a CSS context at all times. This requirement covers all the rest of 
what this prose attempts to describe; it handles the sizing of the 
horizontal and vertical dimensions as one unit, it handles both the 
interaction of the "positioning" properties with SVG as well as the 
interaction of all the other layout-related properties, and so forth.
The 
text that attempts to cover these cases in the SVG spec is therefore 
merely confusing.

Please remove all this text, or decouple it from the prose that
describes 
the interaction with CSS, other than the initial statement quoted at the

top of this e-mail. (It is fine if you need this text to cover 
XSL-specific situations, for instance, but it should not attempt to
cover 
the CSS situations, since the CSS specs handle all of those.)

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Tuesday, 9 May 2006 23:11:42 UTC