Hi Johann Thanks for your interest in my work and for your questions.
I don't have any specific problems with using the old version of python within Dia, it more that I have to maintain an install of the old python version with newer versions required for other things. This works OK right now, but as with everything you have to update at some point otherwise things stop working eventually. Here is a short video of the R5 robot working with Plan4.inst created directly from the python export - https://youtu.be/7Pur3ADVPO4 I have created plans with maybe 150 elements and it works fine. I think it would usefully scale up to several hundred plan elements, although you would need some structure in your layout of the diagram to keep it maintainable. The plans are not hierarchies, but directed graphs i.e. a sub tree can be used in multiple places. I do not currently support any kind of diagram nesting. This visual approach works well for the creation of reactive plans, and we are using it with other tools, see ABOD3 on GitHub https://github.com/RecklessCoding/ABOD3 In terms of limitations I can't think of anything specific. It was a little difficult to work out how to debug the python script from within the Dia environment. I did look at doing this in MS-Visio, and even discounting the huge cost of Visio (I can get a free Uni licence), I honestly think it was much easier in Dia with Python than it would have been using VBScript in Visio. One very handy facility would be the ability to group a set of elements and then collapse/expand them into a single visible element, whilst maintaining the underlying object data structures. I like Dia very much. Cheers Rob -----Original Message----- From: Johann Tienhaara [mailto:jtienha...@yahoo.com] Sent: 15 September 2016 02:49 To: Rob Wortham <r.h.wort...@gmail.com>; 'discussions about usage and development of dia' <dia-list@gnome.org> Subject: Dia and reactive planning (was: Dia Discontinued) Hi Rob, I'm curious, what sorts of features in newer versions of Python would be helpful to your project? I'm halfway through your introductory paper on Instinct (http://www.robwortham.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ICAPS-2016-PlanRob-Instinct-Planner.pdf) and would highly recommend it to anyone who, like me, knows nothing about robot AI or "reactive planning". It might very well be great for those well versed in the field, too. But the fact that it is well written and low on acronyms makes it very approachable for outsiders like me. Your use of Dia is interesting. Do you have any videos of robots controlled by plans like the sample on your website? http://www.robwortham.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Dia-Plan4.jpg How well is the visual planning approach working for you? Are you at all constrained by lack of hierarchy in a single Dia UML diagram? Or are the plans generally small? Or have you constructed a way to nest diagrams? Or is it too soon to tell whether the visual approach will suffice for complex plans? What kinds of limitations in Dia and/or Python did you hit? Coding limitations (like getting the UML - to - plan code working)? Or UI / usability issues? Etc? I can't speak for anyone else on the list, of course, but I'd certainly be interested in hearing more about your project in general, and experiences with Dia in particular. Cheers, Johann ________________________________ From: Rob Wortham <r.h.wort...@gmail.com> To: 'Johann Tienhaara' <jtienha...@yahoo.com>; 'discussions about usage and development of dia' <dia-list@gnome.org> Sent: Wednesday, September 14, 2016 2:10 PM Subject: RE: Dia Discontinued Hi Johann My python work is here https://github.com/rwortham/Instinct/tree/master/extras Details also here http://www.robwortham.com/instinct-planner/ Cheers Rob _______________________________________________ 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
