Re: chickenpox: dia in LWN (again)

[Lars Clausen <lars raeder dk>]

On Fri, 2004-03-19 at 21:07, Cyrille Chepelov wrote:
> Le Fri, Mar 19, 2004, Ã  02:50:44PM +0000, Alan Horkan a écrit:
[...]
> > This sounds like it would be good post 0.93 and before 1.0 (whenever that
> > might be) but I wouldn't presume to know what Lars has in mind.
>
> With what I wrote just above, it's clearer to me now that this really is
> post .93 material. I have enough to chew on with the intersections stuff
> already... then the index->identifier transition for accessing the
> Object::connections array. Generous valgrinding, deliberate fudging of
> CP indices and reloading older diagrams to make sure I didn't get anything 
> wrong. Then only the actually interesting stuff. Huh, a real lot of stuff to
> do indeed :-)

It is indeed.  0.93 is distchecking while I write this, still having
some problems with the doc installation (that's what happens when you
move to a newer automake:). 

I agree with Phillipe that a connection point in the center would be
good.  Now I envisage it as a virtual connection point, where you
connect to it by dropping a line anywhere on the object (except on real
cp's).  The line should then go to the edge of the object in the
direction the lines comes in.  If the object moves, each lines connected
to the virtual cp is adjusted to still point at the middle.  

I actually had something very close to that with the line gap code, but
it wasn't extendible to beziers or arcs.

Chickenpox mode is ... interesting.  There's definitely scenarios where
it could be useful, but I think almost all needs would be covered by
three things:
  Our current connection points (for nice lining up)
  Virtual center connection point (for just pointing at the object)
  Dynamic connection points at the edges of objects (for spreading
    out zigzaglines pointing at an object)

I'm not sure I like the idea of explicitly erasing connectionpoints.  I
think dragging a line into an object might connect there (optionally
snapped to edge), but if you move the line away, the cp should just
disappear.

As for when this stuff should happen:  I really would like the virtual
center point before 1.0.  The chickenpox idea and variations I see as
somewhat more experimental, and would like to way till after 1.0.

-Lars