On 10/28/2011 5:28 PM, Przemek Klosowski wrote:
> On 10/28/2011 2:58 PM, Kirk Wallace wrote:
>>> Currently, I am using Inkscape to lay out and graphically connect HAL
>>> component symbols. I edit my .hal file using the diagram as a reference.
>>> This is working well so far, but it would be much better if, for
>>> instance, the diagram connections would move with a component if I
>>> decide to move it, which Inkscape doesn't do, as far as I know. I
>>> started using gEDA,
> Did you consider using Dia? It is designed for drawing diagrams, so it
> has a notion of connecting lines attached to and following the
> objects. I think there's even a way to import complex layouts
> generated e.g. by the graphviz package, which would make Kent happy.
p.

I had high hopes for Dia early on but generally it has disappointed me. 
I hate to admit it but I liked the proprietary program Visio much better 
(but this experience was before it was bought by Microsoft).

Taking a step back, the default version (2.20.2) of Graphviz in Ubuntu 
10.04LTS does still have an output filter for Dia but that filter was 
dropped sometime after and is not available in the lastest version 
(2.28.0) of Graphviz on the graphviz.org website. Not encouraging.

Further, my diagrams turn to crap when exported out of Graphviz 2.20.2 
and imported into Dia 0.97.1. Sigh. Maybe the problem could be fixed 
with a richer interchange format, maybe not.

Taking yet another step back, don't forget that what I'm doing is driven 
by pure laziness*. I want to document EMC2 configurations and not have 
to do a lick of unnecessary work to get there. I am determined not to do 
any manual layout or cleanup (which seems always to need redoing) if I 
can possibly avoid it. If only Dia could get me there :-(

On the plus side, Graphviz 2.20.2 can output svg and Graphviz 2.28.0 
outputs even better svg and I'm exploring using that as the basis for 
building diagrams (more Python filterning, of course) that allow the 
user to highlight netlists by mousing over them. I got this idea from a 
conversation with Chris Radek, who reminded me that, to see where they 
go, one can tug on individual wires in a wiring harness (which was the 
analogy I had made to the pile-up of signal traces in my diagrams).

Regards,
Kent

*there is a rich history to laziness and programmers. Larry Wall 
invented PERL to avoid repetitive sysadmin tasks. NIST's own Don Libes 
invented 'expect' so he could automate repetitive interactive tasks. If 
only I could be as lazy as these guys!



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