Re: Improving lifeline objects behaviour

["Filippo Bergamasco" <fbergama gmail com>]

Lars,
I'm glad to see that you have tested my patch and appreciated my idea! Maybe i didn't point out that that was a quick hack used mostly as an experiment to improve lifeline usability instead of a definitive change to the code. My first aim was to change its behaviour by modifying as less as possible to avoid side-effects or accidentally destroy compatibility with old versions.

So.. by your leave.. now i would like to _partially_ re-write lifeline code making this big but (imho) necessary changes:

1) Change overall behaviour as shown in my previous patch, but with the care to let cp_distance be a property of lifeline object (magic is bad.. sir, yes sir!  <-- i also agree to this)

2) Solve the boring problem to have 2 cp_lines by side plus 6 fixed cp just to quickly mantain backward compatibility

3) Create a _very_ simple gui to let users adjust cp_distance by a specific value instead of hardcoded increments (<-- this one needs your ok )

4) Mantain compatibility with older versions by _converting_ old objects to new ones while loading. This is actually the main problem for me because i didn't figure out well how objects are saved/loaded.. can you give me a quick advice about where to look for some informations?  Is also necessary to convert new objects to old ones while saving?


Unfortunately now I'm so busy with exams so I'm asking you to give me some time to do and test all these, but it will ends up to a nice work.. i promise :)

Thanks a lot,
Filippo Bergamasco

ps. 
What about document what I've found? What exactly I'll have to do? Just comment my code or...?