xml-dev - RE: What is wrong with SVG?

["Don Park" <donpark@docuverse.com>]

>See 
>http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/Process-19991111/tr.html#last-call

Thanks, Mike.

>So ... public feedback is 'encouraged", and must be 
>"resolved". I believe that "resolved" can mean something
>like "we considered Mr. Park's ravings and decided that
>size DOES matter" ;~)

Hey, my wife doesn't complain, at least not in public.

>Basically, the WG, and ultimately the Director, must decide
>whether the problems noted in public commentary warrant
>sending the spec back for another round ... and since this
>is already SVG's second round of Last Call (right?) it would
>have to be a BIG problem.

Well, I am rather good at making a mountain out of a mole...

Seriously, I glanced through previous versions of the SVG spec
and they looked good at the time.  I was impressed by the names
on the authors and assortment of companies so I assumed SVG was
in good hands.

Looking at the latest version, I have to conclude that my
assumptions were mostly right.  Although the spec is still weak
on providing rationale, it was very good in clarity with lots
of details and examples to help the reader along the way.  Its
design stinks of everyday practicality which is a good thing (ah,
the smell of farm life :).

There are some odd bits like the path data attribute which I
'stepped into' the other day while strolling through some real
world SVG files.  Well, it was rather hard to miss since I barely
recognized the file as an XML file with so much path data around.

While I can certainly live with SVG as it stands now, I am concerned
over what I think is an increasing trend toward micro-parsing which
might be necessary evil in some XML applications but detracts from
usefulness of XML, DOM, and SAX.  I think it started with CSS which
infected XML via HTML and lately SVG.  Then we have XPath which seems
to be breaking its own meme trail.

Maybe we are facing an equivalent of Fusion food era for XML: using
XML for the tree and custom languages for the leaves.  Maybe this is
a good thing.  Maybe I should watch where I place my foot...

Best,

Don Park    -   mailto:donpark@docuverse.com
Docuverse   -   http://www.docuverse.com


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