Re: Question about handles

[Don Blaheta <blahedo blahedo org>]

I'm trying to understand handles and connection points too, and having
some difficulty.

Quoth Hans Breuer:
> Am 23.07.2008 10:41, Andrew M. Botros schrieb:
> > One other thing, let me rephrase my question @ the very beginning,
> > How can I know the objects connected to a Standard - Line?
> So lets try once more ;)
>
> There are two specialized objects involved in building a connection. One is 
> a Handle, the other one is a ConnectionPoint. In an existing connection 
> between two DiaObject the Handle belongs to the first ("connected to") and 
> the ConnectionPoint belongs to second ("connected by").

So the only things that have handles are the line-ish things (line, arc,
zigzagline, etc), for which you can actually drag and endpoint and
create a connection?  And then a lot of objects have ConnectionPoints,
marked by the little blue x (when that option is turned on)?

> The "Standard - Line" DiaObject is special because it is one of only few 
> objects which can be "connected to" (has Handles) and also "connected by" 
> (has a ConnectionPoint). Thus I still have problems understanding your 
> question. Note: there is an important difference between the active and the 
> passive form.

Note: the word "connected" is passive in both "connected to" and
"connected by".  Part of what I found confusing about the exchange was
that Hans seems to find the to/by distinction obvious, whereas to me it
seems rather arbitrary and *quite* at odds with the natural English
interpretations of those phrases.  For instance, if I had two boxes with
a line between them as in the following ASCII art:

  +---+   +---+
  |   +---+   |
  +---+   +---+

an _English_ description would say that the line is "connected to" both
boxes, each box is "connected to" the line, and box 1 and box 2 are
"connected by" the line that runs between them (but only as a pair;
"box 1 is connected by the line" is nonsensical as English).  In fact,
I would (in English) say that box 1 is connected *to* box 2, *by* the
line.

By my current understanding, the _Dia_ description would say that the
line has two Handles, one at each endpoint, each of which is "connected
to" a ConnectionPoint on one of the boxes; meanwhile the boxes each have
many ConnectionPoints, one (per box) of which is "connected by" the
line.  The boxes are connected neither to nor by each other.

Is that about right?

-- 
-=-Don Blaheta-=-=-blahedo blahedo org-=-=-=-<http://www.blahedo.org/>-=-
Alas, I am dying beyond my means.
                        --Oscar Wilde, sipping champagne on his deathbed