Re[2]: lines

[Alan G Isaac <aisaac american edu>]

> On Thu, 12 Sep 2002, Alan G. Isaac wrote:
> > In other drawing programs I have used, one
> > can force a line to vertical or horizontal
> > by holding down the shift key while drawing.
> > This is very useful since otherwise completely
> > horizontal or vertical lines are hard to draw.



On 12 Sep 2002 15:20:45 -0500 Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu> wrote:
> This can be done with the Control key in Dia.  It restricts all movement to
> horizontal/vertical.


It took me a moment to understand what this means with the
line object, but I finally get it.  The problem is that this
only forces a line to horizontal or vertical if it starts
with that orientation, and neither is the default
orientation of the line object.  So someone who prefers
working without "snap to grid" must first "eyeball" a line
to horizontal (or vertical) and then use ctrl while extending it.

Off the cuff proposal: add properties "Force to horizontal"
and "Force to vertical" to the Line object menu.

As an aside, I discovered something odd while trying
to find a work-around that does not require snapping
to the grid.  Add a line object and place the one
endpoint on top of the other.  It makes a connection
with itself that cannot be broken.  Since Polylines
and Bezierlines do not display this behavior, I am
guessing it is unintentional.

Cheers,
Alan Isaac