line(a, b) vs lineTo([a, b]) argument types

[lf94]

How come there's this difference?

[sgenoud]

This is the different between an absolute and a relative position. When you draw (or sketch) your pointer is at a position (for instance you drew a line to [5, 2]. If you do line(1, 1) you will draw to the point [6, 3]. If you do lineTo([1, 1]) you will draw to [1, 1]

[lf94]

I should've been more explicit... Why are the arguments not the same types? Sorry 🥲

[sgenoud]

This tries to make explicit that these two actions are different.

When you move absolutely you move to a point (i.e. an array of two numbers). When you move in relative you change distances (which is not a point).

I concede that when you move relatively you move by a vector (which is also an array of numbers). Is there a reason you would prefer to have it as a vector?

[lf94]

It's a more consistent API interface - when running svg2replicad I didn't realize this and was getting an error - it was because I presumed they were of the same type!

It makes calling more consistent: line(x, y) vs lineTo(v) is inconsistent when they are both drawing lines... And there are probably cases for when you want to do math on the absolute point v that transforms it into a "relative point" v2 and vice-versa... The math then only involves 1 type, making everything easier to understand (instead of seeing additional type conversion)

You could keep the old API for line and just provide it an overloaded type as well (line(x: number | Point2D, y?: number))

[sgenoud]

The math then only involves 1 type, making everything easier to understand (instead of seeing additional type conversion)

It feels like it would be less welcoming for new users. It makes the API more consistant - but the action behind it is not consistant. In some ways it exposes the inconsistency (line and lineTo are not the same thing) in a way that aligns with what it does.

The math then only involves 1 type, making everything easier to understand (instead of seeing additional type conversion)

Note that the conversion is not that complicated to do line(...vector) should just work.

There is a bit of inconsistency with the way I do the translate - sometimes I take a vector sometimes a list of distances. I will support everywhere the list of distances for consistency with the "what is absolute and what is relative". I will keep the type overloaded for backwards compatibility but might remove it at some point in the future.

I will close this issue for now - if I see it coming up again and again with newbies I will reconsider!