[instaviz-users] Two things I am not able to achieve

[Glen Low]

Bernd

On 16/12/2008, at 4:58 AM, Bernd Braßel wrote:

> At the moment it can't be done. A loop gesture would too easily be
> confused with a circle shape, and a rough survey of Graphviz graphs
> revealed that loops aren't that common. If we can figure out a gesture
> that can be used for a self-edge, it will make its way to a new
> version of Instaviz.
>
> I do not have the feeling that you would normally draw a circle  
> which touches one of the other nodes or would you? So it might be  
> the natural way to do it, after all.

Since graphs can get quite crowded, especially in one of the  
alternative layout schemes (working on this for 1.1), I wanted users  
to be able to draw shapes anywhere. This means sometimes the user  
would start within or next to another node, and then the only real way  
of distinguishing:

1.	I want to connect two nodes with an edge.
2.	I want to create a new node, but just happened to have selected a  
node already.
3.	I want to change the shape of the selected node.

is to detect lines for 1. and shapes for 2. and 3., and check that 3.  
has a good overlap of shape area.

Thus a self-edge would probably need a custom gesture. This would need  
to be something that is fairly intuitive but sufficiently different  
from existing shapes for the recognizer to get a good grip on it e.g.  
a loop that crosses itself. But any such gesture would not be a direct  
parallel to all the other shapes and lines, so it wouldn't be too  
intuitive. So at the time of release, I figured it was best left to a  
subsequent version.




Cheers, Glen Low


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