Is implied lineto after moveto ambiguous?

Hello Working Group.

In packing path data for a high traffic web feature, I came across
what I think is an ambiguity in the spec:

The definition for the moveto command (
http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/paths.html#PathDataMovetoCommands ) in path
is as follows:

--
Start a new sub-path at the given (x,y) coordinate. M (uppercase)
indicates that absolute coordinates will follow; m (lowercase)
indicates that relative coordinates will follow. If a relative moveto
(m) appears as the first element of the path, then it is treated as a
pair of absolute coordinates. If a moveto is followed by multiple
pairs of coordinates, the subsequent pairs are treated as implicit
lineto commands.
--

Lineto comes in two flavours, but no mention is made in the
definition, or in the implementation notes (
http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG/implnote.html#PathElementImplementationNotes
), as to which lineto is implied.

It would seem to me that a relative move should imply a relative
lineto and an absolute move would imply an absolute lineto.

Further to this, if a path starts with a relative move, it is seen as
an absolute move, since there is nothing for it to be relative to, but
it could/should be used to imply a relative lineto.

I haven't tested browsers, I would be willing to expend the effort if
any interest is shown.

-- 
Cheers!
Rick

Received on Wednesday, 21 April 2010 17:19:24 UTC