> Here's my proposal: horizontal connections should only be used when the upper object has only one outlet, and the lower object has only one inlet. Â Otherwise there will be always be ambiguity.
>
> With your example of all outlets pointing to the same inlet, there is still ambiguity as to whether or not all the outlets are actually connected. Â That's fine if your patching style is to connect them first, and only line them up after. Â But if someone is debugs a patch they made that includes your abstraction, they would have to click and move objects to be certain all the objects are actually connected.
There is one way to be a little less conservative, but it requires a
usage agreement: if a horizontal connection travels from left to
right, it must come from the right-most outlet of the upper object and
must connect to the left-most inlet of the lower object. Reverse if
the connection travels from right to left. The problem is there's no
good way to tell if a patch adheres to the agreement.
Matt