[PEPr] Comment on XML::SvgGrapher

Adam Harvey (http://pear.php.net/user/aharvey) has commented on the proposal for XML::SvgGrapher. Comment: Fair response. :) To be honest, I couldn't see myself voting for this package as things stand. Setting aside coding standard issues related to file and class naming and the like, neither of which I'm overly concerned about right now, I think there are two main issues that would be showstoppers for me: * The inclusion of what amounts to a complete XML generation library in XMLDocument.php and XMLElement.php; this seems to be unnecessary duplication of PHP5's DOM extension. * The duplication of effort between this and Image_Graph. I realise that there are features in this package that go above and beyond Image_Graph's capabilities -- the script.layer and script.tooltip plugins are things that could never be replicated in Image_Graph because of its use of Image_Canvas and underlying assumption that it's always generating a static image -- but I don't think they're compelling enough to justify having two separate graphing packages within PEAR (along with the confusion that sort of thing causes -- just look at the DB/MDB/MDB2 situation), particularly when one will have a narrow SVG-based focus. The SVG handling code is interesting, but perhaps not all that useful in isolation without validating inputs and the like, and that's a different package to this one anyway. :) Of course, that's all just my opinion. Other PEAR developers can (and probably will) disagree with me. One final comment which is completely unrelated to whether this is accepted into PEAR or not: there's a licensing issue in the package in that the Microsoft Web fonts in the tarball can't be legally redistributed as standalone .ttf files; they can only be redistributed in their original .exe or .sit.hqx forms, per http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/faq8.htm (which is a mirror of the original and now defunct Microsoft Web page dealing with font licensing). That is, of course, incredibly inconvenient in the finest Microsoft tradition. You may be able to look at using the Bitstream Vera or DejaVu fontset as a replacement, although you then run into possible issues with the client not necessarily having the fonts installed. Sorry, I know that sucks. Proposal information: http://pear.php.net/pepr/pepr-proposal-show.php?id=514 -- Sent by PEPr, the automatic proposal system at http://pear.php.net