External References for <use> (was: Webkit Bug: <use> Please VOTE, comment or even patch.)

Hi, Jonathan-

Thanks for bring this to greater attention.

For those who aren't clear about what this issue deals with, SVG allows 
authors to make external references to resources, such as shapes, 
gradients, filters, and such, to allow an author to maintain a resource 
library which is referenced by documents.  This was a key design feature 
of SVG: rather than define a limited set of symbols, as some people 
requested, SVG provides a much more extensible solution... it lets 
authors roll their own.  This way, SVG is adaptable for any 
topic-specific use.  Because this feature has not enjoyed much support 
in implementations, this feature has not seen much uptake by authors... 
the most common version of the Adobe viewer didn't support it (though a 
later experimental build did), and until recently, Opera was the only 
Web browser that did support it.  However, Firefox 3.5 does support it, 
and I think SVG Web does as well.

I agree that this is a very serious shortcoming of WebKit's SVG 
implementation, and that for interoperability with other browsers, and 
for ease of authoring and reusability, WebKit should implement it.  I 
have commented on the bug, and added some votes to it, as Jonathan 
requested.  I strongly encourage others to do the same.  Test cases may 
also help improve interop here.

  https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12499


Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, SVG and WebApps WGs


"~:'' ありがとうございました" wrote (on 7/31/09 7:31 AM):
> This is a highly unusual request**,
>
> Please vote, comment or patch Webkit Bug 12499
>
> If you have 10 votes, please use them ALL!
>
> 80,000 votes from this list ~:"
>
> Do It Now!
>
> thanks
>
> Jonathan Chetwynd
>
>
> https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12499
>
>
> **I feel passionately that <use> is a fundamental and vital part of the
> SVG specification.
>
> it enables graphics to be simply re-purposed and saves bandwidth where
> this may be limited, such as
> people with low-literacy in remote areas of non-industrialised countries
> using mobile phones.
>
> The relevant specification is here:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/struct.html#UseElement
>
> xlink:href = "<uri>"
> A URI reference to an element/fragment within an SVG document.
>
> This bug is 30 months old and there is now a related CRASH bug.
>

Received on Sunday, 2 August 2009 07:37:43 UTC