Hi,
We are trying to improve vector rendering for points geometry, allowing users to display symbols such as a square, a triangle, a plane, a church and so on instead of just a circle. At present, we have a library in SVG (using the <symbol> element) and a library in VML (using the <shapetype> element). Symbols are loaded when the root element <svg> (or <div> in VML) is created, and when the drawPoint function is called with a specific style for the point, it references the specified symbol with <use href=#symbol> in SVG and <shape type=#symbol> in VML. http://dev.openlayers.org/sandbox/camptocamp/vectorSymbols/examples/vector-symbols.html We are thinking about creating a single library, in order to be generic and so that people can add their own symbols in one file and not both SVG and VML. Problems we meet are : - We would need to draw complex symbols. SVG <symbol> element allows it since several <path> or predefined <shape> can be included inside but in VML, the <shapetype> element isn't so permissive since we can't include several shapes or groups of elements inside. So only simple symbols (one shape, color, stroke-width, etc) would be allowed... - which language is better to write the single library : SVG since SVG symbols are quite spread on the web (with problem above in mind) or javascript to have a generic way to encode symbols, or another language? - A single library involves to develop a way to transform SVG into VML or a certain language into SVG and VML, and there are significant differences between the two (shapetype vs symbol, path element accepting decimal numbers in SVG and not in VML, etc) Any ideas about these problems? So do you think it's worth it or offering predefined symbols and letting people adding their code into SVG library and VML library would be satisfactory? Regards, Barbara _______________________________________________ Dev mailing list [email protected] http://openlayers.org/mailman/listinfo/dev
