Dynamic Rendering Order??

Please excuse a question from a < newbie to SVG.

My understanding is that rendering order is determined by the order in which 
something occurs in the SVG document.  I.e. it is not an attribute (if 
that's the right term) like x or y.  I have several questions about this.

Did the SVG committee consider making rendering order an attribute?  If this 
was considered and rejected, I'd be quite curious to know the rationale.

What is the best method of changing rendering order dynamically -- in an on 
mouseOver handler, for instance?  I'm just getting started studying SVG, so 
there is much I don't understand yet.  From what limited amount I do know, 
it looks as though the only choices to do rendering order dynamically are 
(1) create SVG on the fly and (2) have multiple versions of a drawing 
embedded and hide and show groups to pick the one with the right rendering 
order.  Both of these have problems.  For (1) I'm concerned about the 
ramifications for preloading.  (When I want to change the rendering order, I 
*don't* want this to require a new HTTP request, for example.)  (2) could 
get out of hand in a hurry, geometrically exploding the size of the 
document.  Maybe there's another method using something obvious I'm 
overlooking ...

If making rendering order an attribute was not already considered and 
rejected, is there any chance of getting this discussed for an SVG 2.0?

What is the best thinking on how to get dynamic rendering order?

Thanks in advance ...

---
Jim Rosenberg                            http://www.well.com/user/jer/
     CIS: 71515,124
     WELL: jer
     Internet: jr@amanue.com

Received on Friday, 29 June 2001 22:02:44 UTC