Re: Simple line connections

[Arne Christian Hårseth <arnechaa online no>]

Lars wrote:
> > Arne wrote:
> > I am afraid I don't follow you.  Anyway I don't understand why there
> > should be a difference in the connection handling depending on wether the
> > line is horizontal or vertical?
> 
> Are you referring to the zigzag-line that prefers to have its arrows
> vertical?  Otherwise I don't see any difference.

No, I am talking about simple straight lines. Draw a T with two connecting straight lines and try to move each of the two lines. What confused me was that I did not see the difference between a connector and a connected object (element). In this case the vertical line is a connector and the horizontal line is the connected object. So a line can be both a connector and an ordinary object. May be the difference should be made more clear? Ie. marking a connector red as you connect it (returning to the original color when connectd)?

By the way, is there any reason why a non line (ie. box or elipse) could not be a connector? 

> > I think automatically using a hidden snapline from a connection point as
> > I suggested would be easier.
> 
> I see what you mean.  That might be a good idea.  Better than extra menu
> points.  But how often do you want to have a horizontal line without it
> connecting to something?  Now if there was the possibility of making a
> connection anywhere on an element, that would be useful, but as it is now,
> it would be of limited use.

In the last diagram I made I used lines connecting in only on end a lot. I made a tree like diagram like this:

|
|--|-
|   |--|-
|       |-
|       |-

The right most lines only has one connection point each. I also needed the top an bottom line on each vertical line to connect at the end of the line. I guess I could have solved the need for a connection point at line end by using a zigzag line as a bracket but this would have made the diagram less generic.

I think trees like this might be very common (file trees, LDAP trees, organizations trees etc.). In these cases it might be common to have lines connection at only one end (typically having a text at the non connected end. You might argue that this makes the line connect at both ends but it seems that the fact that the line has no connector at the end makes it impossible to connect the end of the line to the text object).

Arne