XML dependence will become optional in SVG 2 and hopefully it will be deprecated in SVG 3. Chrome team is already considering switching to HTML parser no matter

XML dependence will become optional in SVG 2 and hopefully it will be deprecated in SVG 3. Chrome team is already considering switching to HTML parser no matter whether the SVG document uses XML or HTML serialization. <use> elements with external references are tricky due to the same origin policy restrictions and various browser bugs, but referencing local IDs works just fine. Inkscape for example creates clones and symbol instances with <use> elements. The most obscure part of the paths specification, i.e. the pathSegList interface, is gone in SVG 2. There were some plans to deprecate the "d" attribute and instead introduce a nicer function-based syntax such as data="move(10, 10) line(20, 20)", but AFAIK this idea has been dropped. Still, the path data grammar is clearly defined in the spec, I'm not sure why browser vendors don't follow it. SVG 2 will support multi-line text and embedded WOFF fonts. This feature is important when you are authoring e.g. UI mockups or posters. Even low level drawing APIs such as canvas have the text primitive. If you express textual content with <path> instead of <text> element then it will not be editable and selectable, screenreaders won't recognize it and search engines won't index it.