Dia strengths

[Ron Wilson via dia-list]

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 5:41 AM  wrote:

>
> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2020 05:41:07 -0400
> From: Steve Litt 
> Subject: Re: Migration of dia-list to GNOME Discourse instance
>
> In the 20 years I've used dia, Inkscape has been playing catch-up, and
> Inkscape still has a perfectly functional mailing list. I've always
> needed to convert dia to Inkscape before making a real graphic, so,
> well, if the mailing list is taken away, maybe I'll just find non-dia
> ways to make block diagrams and network diagrams.
>

Dia and Inkscape have different target audiences in mind. On the other
hand, Inkscape is good for "polishing" Dia diagrams for publication. While
Inkscape does have a basic "connector line" feature, it's not playing
catch-up with Dia. Dia, while very technically capable, producing clean,
presentation quality output is not one of its strong points. I use both and
like them both for their target uses.
___
dia-list mailing list
dia-list@gnome.org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list
FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq
Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia

Re: dia-list Digest, Vol 193, Issue 9

[Ron Wilson via dia-list]

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 4:07 PM  wrote:

> On Tue, 20 Oct 2020, Olav Vitters wrote:
>
> > Thanks, up to now that lack of creating a new topic/thread via email
> > wasn't much of a problem. Hopefully by raising it as an issue it can get
> > fixed. Upstream (Discourse) was ok with the idea, but seems there aren't
> > too many people who complained. I did notice that upstream proposed
> > something like 'Tagged: dia' instead of a unique email address.


Adding a special header is not an option for most people. A topic specific
email address is something everyone can use.

I have seen systems that accept a prefix or suffix to the user part of the
address for purposes of "sorting" incoming email into "sub folders" of the
user's mail box. The same idea could be adapted for tagging messages to
entered into Discourse (or other forum software).
___
dia-list mailing list
dia-list@gnome.org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list
FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq
Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia

Re: Re: Migration of dia-list to GNOME Discourse instance

[Ron Wilson via dia-list]

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 5:41 AM  wrote:

>
> Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2020 10:51:57 +0200
> From: Slavko 
> Subject: Re: Migration of dia-list to GNOME Discourse instance
>
> On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 02:52:23 -0400 Steve Litt 
> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, 19 Oct 2020 14:25:40 +0200
> > Olav Vitters via dia-list  wrote:
> >
> >
> > I can't imagine anything friendlier than email. It comes to you, you
> > read it, you reply. No need to join yet another third party, no need
> > to read and agree to yet another legal contract, many of which have
> > "take your house" indemnification clauses.
> >
> > > This experiment seems to have proven itself well enough,
> > > and has since expanded to other territories as well. As such, we
> > > believe it is time to make the same switch for most of our mailing
> > > lists.
> >
> > I disagree.
> >
> > > ...
>
> I am happy to see, that i am not only one with this point of view.
>

I also think that the mailing list is vastly better.

Please  do end this mailing list.
___
dia-list mailing list
dia-list@gnome.org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list
FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq
Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia

Re: dia-list Setting page/fontsize attributes

[Ron Wilson via dia-list]

On Sat, Jun 27, 2020 at 8:00 AM  wrote:

>
> Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2020 10:18:28 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Rich Shepard 
> Subject: Setting page/fontsize attributes
>
> I am creating a database schema diagram of tables and columns on letter
> paper. I want to change the display to a single page rather than what
> appears to be a large grid of pages, with marginal rulers in to-me-unknown
> units.
>

Between the Document and Page setup dialogs, you can control the units, the
margins, page size, etc.

As for the grid of pages, you need to zoom in to fit your page on screen.

As for text, I can't replicate your problem. Sorry.
___
dia-list mailing list
dia-list@gnome.org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list
FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq
Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia

Re: Software accessibility

[Ron Wilson via dia-list]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 8:01 AM  wrote:

>
> Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2020 22:55:20 -0400
> From: 
> Subject: Software accessibility
>
> I am currently enrolled in a Java programming course at my university, and
> as a student who is blind, I am enquiring if your software is accessible to
> screen readers; preferably, JAWS. I am having to create, and read Uml class
> diagrams and I am very interested in finding software that work with my
> unique situation. Any help that you can provide will be greatly
> appreciated.
>

umldesigner.org claims to be able to import UML 2.5 from text files. But, I
don't know what screen readers it supports.

Alternately, graphviz.org  reads easy to learn
textual instructions and produces output in several formats, including SVG
and many others. Perhaps your output device can directly interpret one of
the output formats Graphviz can produce.
___
dia-list mailing list
dia-list@gnome.org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list
FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq
Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia

Re: How and where the Python binding is done?

[Ron Wilson via dia-list]

On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 8:01 AM  wrote:

>
> Date: Mon, 27 May 2019 11:14:31 +0200
> From: Przemek Kot 
> Subject: How and where the Python binding is done? I need some
> directions in   changing python2 for python3 in Dia.
> Message-ID:
>
> Hi, I would like to ask for some directions where to find, what to look for
> if i would like to change the use of python2 to python3 in dia?
>
> I discovered that dia uses python2 and i need python3 to use, and Im going
> on a adventure that is changing the python2 for python3.
>

There are extensions for Dia written in Python, but as best I can
determine, Dia itself does not use Python.

Several years ago, I had a need for one of those extensions. To use it, I
had to install a Python2 environment.

These Python scripts import a module called "dia". I did not look at it,
but I would assume you would need to rewrite portions of that module to be
compatible with Python3.

FYI, another tool, Inkscape, has a usably documented interface for writing
extensions in any language.

Right now, as best I can tell, closest there is to documentation on Dia's
extension interface is the dia Python2 module.
___
dia-list mailing list
dia-list@gnome.org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list
FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq
Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia

Re: dia-list Digest, Vol 175, Issue 2

[Ron Wilson via dia-list]

On Sun, Jan 13, 2019 at 11:38 AM  wrote:

>
> Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2019 19:03:12 +0300
> From: Andrey Repin 
> Subject: Re: Meson build: status update
> >
> > 2. Windows distribution
> > Due to the interest in upgrading the Windows installer (
> > https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/dia/issues/22 ), I have tried to package
> the
> > binaries into an archive to allow easy redistribution.? I hope this will
> be
> > helpful if we want (re-)create the NSIS installer?? I have created a few
> > archives and been keeping track of it on my fork
>
> I'd prefer standard MSI for easy distribution.
>

NSIS installers can be converted to MSI packages. There are several tools
available that do that.
___
dia-list mailing list
dia-list@gnome.org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list
FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq
Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia

Re: What's wrong with Dia the way it is?

[Ron Wilson via dia-list]

Where I work, Di is very usable on both MS Windows and Linux.

We currently have only 2 significant usage issues:

1. No way to set default text properties. For text objects, the work-around
is easy. For objects with "text fields", like UML shapes, this is more work.

2. The UML Transition shape has a text field with no text properties. This
effectively makes diagrams non-portable between computers.

(Yes, I know, we could just label shapes using text objects and group text
with the shape, but this makes generating code from diagrams more complex.
Also, it introduces another source of potential errors.)

While we can live with those problems, they often require extra work when
someone edits another person's diagram.

(We do make fixes to most of the open source tools we use and have
attempted to make fixes to Dia. But our area of expertise is
electro-mechanical systems, not desktop computer applications and we have
very little time available to make more than simple fixes to the open
source tools we do use.)

Still, we are happy with Dia and hope it can be updated to Gtk3/Gtk4, and,
hopefully, continue to have a small resource footprint.

On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 12:39 PM  wrote:

>
> From: Steve Litt 
> Subject: What's wrong with Dia the way it is?
>
> What's wrong with Dia just the way it is? It works. It's exportable
> into Inkscape for conversion to SVG.
>
> Sure, I have a few qualms with the way Dia works, mainly having to do
> with the relationship between text and shapes, but perhaps some good
> workaround documentation would settle that. I'd love to have
> Visio-quality diagram components, and perhaps if somebody writes some
> docs on how to make your own components with the connection points
> *you* want, that will be solved. Plus the fact that if everyone
> authoring new components puts them together in an online hierarchical
> library, perhaps with keyword search, our diagrams could start to rival
> those of visio users.
>
> If some of the libraries used by Dia are in the process of being
> deprecated, then those certainly must be replaced by their successors.
> But other than that, why the emphasis on maintenance? Sometimes
> something's so good it needs no more maintenance (fetchmail is one
> example).
>
> Right now Dia works for people on all sorts of computers. It's very
> DIYable. My experience has been that in many cases, people in a hurry
> to "improve" software end up making it into a buggy, DIY-not-allowed
> monolithic entanglement.
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> December 2018 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21
>
>
> --
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 17:38:05 +
> From: Zander Brown 
> To: discussions about usage and development of dia
> 
> Subject: Re: Hello Everyone
> Message-ID:
> <
> lnxp265mb074554ac9ccf61b8f60489c5dc...@lnxp265mb0745.gbrp265.prod.outlook.com
> >
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> On Wed, 2018-12-05 at 12:16 -0500, Steve Litt wrote:
> > On Tue, 4 Dec 2018 22:24:58 +
> > Alexander Brown  wrote:
> >
> > > Whilst I am a member of the GNOME Foundation and would like to see
> > > Dia
> > > modernised I recognise the fact Dia is very much a cross platform
> > > application and therefore has a sort of 'special status' within the
> > > GNOME Project and have no intention of breaking KDE/macOS/Windows
> > > compatibility
> >
> > And are you going to guarantee Dia's continued useability for those
> > of
> > us who run sans-systemd distros? This is an important question
> > because
> > Gnome itself no longer runs without systemd as its PID1 and early
> > boot
> > library.
>
> I find it highly unlikely that our main dependencies (Gtk, GLib) will
> ever become dependent on systemd and cannot foresee any reason at all
> for Dia to depend on systemd itself
>
> As I've stated I'm committed to maintaining support for macOS & Windows
> neither of which use systemd so yes I have every intention of
> supporting Dia on 'sans-systemd distros'
>
> Hopefully that resolves your concerns
>
> >
> > SteveT
> >
> > Steve Litt
> > December 2018 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
> >
> https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.troubleshooters.com%2Frl21data=02%7C01%7C%7C07df255358994c7bab4808d65ad595dc%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435%7C1%7C0%7C636796270721383503sdata=d7tPMY61Avm7lyuBT5d0Gfqy1pLpQ6w%2BM0vGNE75s4Y%3Dreserved=0
> > ___
> > dia-list mailing list
> > dia-list@gnome.org
> >
> https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmail.gnome.org%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fdia-listdata=02%7C01%7C%7C07df255358994c7bab4808d65ad595dc%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435%7C1%7C0%7C636796270721383503sdata=wSB4dqUb1%2BGztp4o1FsM67uRgmVX02X%2FwgQZSZ5g8e4%3Dreserved=0
> > FAQ at
> >
> 

Re: dia-list Digest, Vol 170, Issue 1

[Ron Wilson via dia-list]

On Sun, Jul 15, 2018 at 8:00 AM,  wrote:
>
> Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2018 17:15:29 +0100
> From: Marco van Beek 
> Subject: Forking and building a new version of dia
>
> Hi,
>
> I am a regular user of dia, and am saddened that it is slowly decaying as
> a project.
>
> I have an idea that might help create a new version with functionality not
> found in any other system.
>
> I have been documenting a fairly large system and realised how quickly the
> diagrams will go out of date, just because cables get moved, and so on.
>
> So it occurred to me that given the xml data format, it should be
> reasonably easy to come up with a client-server version, using an API on a
> standard LAMP/WAMP server.
>

An interesting idea.

Alternative suggestion:

Dia supports import of SVG diagrams.

GraphViz (graphviz.org) generates network graphs from connectivity
descriptors. It can output the generated graph in SVG format.

Define a report for your database that outputs the node connections as a
DOT file, then process the DOT file with Graphviz.

Alternately, Graphviz has scripting APIs for Guile, Java, Perl, PHP,
Python, Ruby and TCL which could automate extraction of information from
your database and generation of the graph, saving the result as SVG.

Once you have the SVG, import it to Dia for any manual editing.
___
dia-list mailing list
dia-list@gnome.org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list
FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq
Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia