On Sat, 13 Nov 2004, vellum wrote:
The best solution is to switch Inkscape rectangles to using <path> as well, as we switched ellipses some time ago. But this is a relatively big change which I don't want to do before the release. So, for now, should I put in a quick and dirty check forbidding the user from putting a text to a rectangle?
No. I'd say leave it as it is until we can fix it properly. At present text to path with a rectangle shape gives text on the inside. However, if you then flip the rectangle it goes to the outside. Actually this works for all the shapes.
We can't release like this; this is a standards-compliance issue: attaching a <textPath> to a <rect> results in a malformed SVG document.
From section 10.13.2 of the SVG 1.1 spec:
If <uri> is an invalid reference (e.g., no such element exists, or the referenced element is not a 'path'), then the 'textPath' element is in error and its entire contents shall not be rendered by the user agent.
We must avoid creating such documents at all costs.
Actually this may be an issue for more than just <rect> ... while we create ellipse/arc objects as <path>s now, I believe we still support the native <ellipse>, <circle> or whatever objects if they are already present in the document.
What happens if we load a document with such an ellipse in it, then attach text to it?
For this release I think the best thing to do is to force all shapes to <path>s when text is attached to them, and document it in the errata.
-mental