Re: [selectors-api] SVG WG Review of Selectors API

Alex Russell wrote:
> So to recap:
> 
>     1.) someone made a mistake by allowing namespaces in XML
>     2.) SVG makes heavy use of this feature as a way to specify many 
> intrinsic operations for which HTML simply adds "local" tags (e.g., links)
>     3.) well intentioned attempts to unify the platform say "hey! lets 
> get everyone using the same (good enough) query language!"
>     4.) the SVG world points out their heavy reliance on XML features
>     5.) we tell them to go script themselves instead of exposing an 
> intrinsic property of tags to the extant selector syntax
> 
> I really do loathe namespaces, but is the selectors API actually going 
> to be this impoverished? If so, I fear it will prevent the actual mixing 
> of SVG and HTML in meaningful ways.

Please describe significant, concrete use cases that you believe 
absolutely cannot be solved using the existing API without native 
support for namespaces.

Also, I will note that many JavaScript libraries, including Dojo, lack 
support for namespaces in their selector implementations. This is one 
reason why support for them wasn't seen as particularly important at 
this stage.

However, I will again note that the decision has been made to proceed 
with this version without support for namespace prefix resolution, and 
to reverse the decision now would hold up the spec for several months. 
This will then have a direct impact on the ability to begin version 2, 
in which this and, IMHO, much more significant issues [1], especially 
the ones affecting JS libraries the most today, are likely to be addressed.

[1] 
http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/buglist.cgi?product=WebAppsWG&component=Selectors+API

-- 
Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software
http://lachy.id.au/
http://www.opera.com/

Received on Tuesday, 27 January 2009 17:29:21 UTC