Basic Question on Usage

[utdrmac]

Does this library actually allow for a connection to a Tezos node over tezos P2P protocol? Or is this just a "helper library" for parsing/decoding blocks from the RPC?
The tagline for this project indicates it can connect to node, but reading the code, I'm not seeing anywhere where connections to nodes are made, nor the handshakes, etc.

[gsgalloway]

This library is intended to be a re-implementation of foundational portions of the Tezos protocol, independent from the OCaml node's RPC interface. Its main utility is as:

• a set of low-level utilities to enable higher-level applications to do such things as crafting and signing Operations, parsing and baking blocks, crafting and signing endorsements, and creating or invoking Michelson without requiring the forge RPC API or the tezos-client CLI
• a library for use in fully-offline applications such as remote signers, where running a Tezos node may not be feasible

The library does not currently implement peer-to-peer connections. The subset of the protocol implemented to date includes peer-to-peer message formats, fee derivation logic and minimum fee calculations, and Micheline parsing and encoding (in development). Will revisit the tagline for more clarity.