Alan No. I have an XML Schema that conforms to "Topic 5 : Features" of the OPenGIS Abstract Specification. That is, it contains elements that are "geographic" (for which Inkscape provides a very convenient means of maintenance) as well as other domain-specific attributes that are associated with these geographies. These are ussually simple string types. When I proposed the capability of providing a form of name-value-pair maintenance capability I was envisaging a simple means of maintaining these attributes (in the hope of the availability of an imminent solution). If such capability were thought to be appropriate then of course the mechnism by which this would be achieved would be up to the Inkscape community. I have no intent in providing users with the ability to define arbitrary name-value pairs. Rather than being concerned with identifying the (presumably mutually exclusive) domain of descriptive terms, I would prefer to deal with the more practical issue of which tool is most suited to my applications development problem. A brief examination of the capabilities of DIA indicated that it follows an "Object-Connector" paradigm. This does not suit my purpose of manipulating geographic entities. These are arranged and transformed spatially in a multitude of ways according to the desires of a user. I've been able to demonstrate the rich capabilities of Inkscape in achieving these spatial operations. I've not seen anything in DIA that comes close. The question is "will Inkscape support the maintenance of domain-specific attributes associted with geometries(while admitting that such capabilities may be rudimentary), or will shapes only ever be shapes" Regards Endre -----Original Message----- From: Alan Horkan [mailto:horkana@...44...] Sent: Wednesday, 24 November 2004 3:43 AM To: NAGY Endre Cc: Inkscape is a vector graphics editor Subject: What do you _really_ want? [was RE: [Inkscape-devel] SVG Linking] On Tue, 23 Nov 2004, NAGY Endre wrote: grasping at a solution for my posted Feature Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that you are using Inkscape for diagramming and want to be able to add arbitrary name value pairs to objects rather than using any namespaces in particularly? HTML was very clever in simple the way it did meta data tags, basically it provided a single tag and two attributes and from there users could create as many of their own name (Author) value (authorname) pairs as they would like by specifying new values for content and name everytime. <meta content="Author" name="authorname"> <meta content="desc" name="description"> (Dia users have been asking for the ability to tag objects with all kinds of information for ever and that has only confirmed my belief in the need for a meta data system that would be simple and extensible at the user level rather than requiring an extended predefined schema). You can see OpenOffice.org offers a similar ability to have an unending set of name value pairs http://books.evc-cit.info/ch02.php#meta-xml-section this screenshot shows it reasonably well the numbered labels are the names and the text entries are the corresponding values, and the popup shows they are arbitrary pairs. http://books.evc-cit.info/figures/ooo.ess.0203.png Let me use this opportunity to say that I hope parts of the Oasis standardized namespaces could be reused by Inkscape rather than creating more things in the inkscape: namespace. I hope to do more reading soon and recommend what custom tags and markup that it migth make sense to drop in favour of an open and standardised namespace shared by a variety of other applications. Even if my guessing is way off a better less evasive description of what you are actually trying to do, the specific end result you are trying to achieve will better enable the developers to help you than specific example problems. If you are really lucky it might even allow them to indirectly help you by doing things they were planning on doing anyway at some point. Sincerely Alan Horkan Free SVG Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org Dia is for Diagrams http://gnome.org/projects/dia/ Inkscape, Draw Freely http://inkscape.org Abiword is Awesome http://abisource.com IMPORTANT NOTICE: This e-mail and any attachment to it are intended only to be read or used by the named addressee. It is confidential and may contain legally privileged information. No confidentiality or privilege is waived or lost by any mistaken transmission to you. The RTA is not responsible for any unauthorised alterations to this e-mail or attachment to it. Views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, and are not necessarily the views of the RTA. If you receive this e-mail in error, please immediately delete it from your system and notify the sender. You must not disclose, copy or use any part of this e-mail if you are not the intended recipient.