What is a "line" object in Inkscape? Drawing lines in Inkscape is by using the tool "Draw Bezier curves and straight lines (Shift+F6)". This creates objects of another type, "path".

Using Inkscape: is there a way to convert an object of type "line" into an object of the more general type "path"?

I have imported a drawing (mostly lines, rectangles and text) that has been through Adobe Illustrator: originally made in Inkscape, imported into Illustrator, edited, saved from Illustrator as SVG, imported into Inkscape.

Sample from the imported SVG file:

<path
   id="path5855"
   stroke="#000000"
   d="  M320.198,275.935" />

<line
   fill="none"
   stroke="#000000"
   x1="348.553"
   y1="45.097"
   x2="348.553"
   y2="185.346"
   id="line3368" />

Update 1: I have inspected the original XML (SVG) file from 2006 and it does not contain any "line" XML tags. Thus it must be a crime of Adobe Illustrator.

When a line is selected in this imported SVG file the bottom panel displays: "Line in root. Click selection to toggle scale/rotation handles.".

When a line is selected that was drawn in Inkscape the bottom panel displays: "Path (2 nodes) in Layer 1. Click selection to toggle scale/rotation handles."

What is the difference between "line" and "path"?

Is "line" some kind of read-only/non-editable object?

A generic term like "line" is not easy to use in search, but I have now found the definitions for "line" and "path":

SVG line: http://www.w3schools.com/svg/svg_line.asp

SVG path: http://www.w3schools.com/svg/svg_path.asp

Platform: Inkscape v0.46 (2008-03-10), Windows XP 64 bit, 8 GB RAM.