#22 Question about the use of "block" and "box"

[Martijn Schiedon]

Hi Zoltan,

The block language uses both the terms "box" and "block". There is a "defstyle block ..." and "blocks use ..." and the language is called "block language". But the way to specify the centerpiece object of the block language is with the syntax "box" or "boxcol", there is no "block" or "blockcol". Do you see the two terms as distinct or are they the same (and if they are the same, why use two terms)?

Kind regards,
Martijn

[Zoltán Turányi]

Hi,

Ah, I should have made it clearer in the doc. Any element (other than an arrow or arrow label) is a block. That is, rows, cols, shapes, text and yes, boxes, too. In the future I plan to add more types of blocks, such as (incidentally named) block arrows, big curly braces, callout bubbles, etc. I try to use this term consistently everywhere (for example defstyle block actually impacts shapes, too) - but it is true that box is probably far the most commonly useful block.

Zoltan