On Tue, Apr 17, 2007 at 03:26:26AM -0400, Jeffrey Brent McBeth wrote:
Why wouldn't you just group the line ad its marker, then put theline's style on the group instead? Ipersonally would love the abiilty to push common styles up the heiarchy. It would make my work a lot easier to keep maintainable (and make the files maringally smaller).
Essentially because SVG provides that markers are implemented as <def> items rather than <group> items.
If all the markers were grouped to the line, then each marker would be a separate element and could hold separate style information. However, they would not automatically align to the line, and if you wished to change the markers, you'd have to alter each marker one at a time.
With the markers done as <def>s, there is really only a single marker element, that is kept in the "definitions" (<def>) section of the document, and it is "referenced" into each place it's needed. Thus, if you update the marker's style, shape, etc., ALL instances of the marker are changed the same way. Markers also have special capabilities (like auto-aligning to the path) compared with other <def> items such as gradients or symbols.
Bryce