Re: Dia-list digest, Vol 1 #758 - 5 msgs

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Lars Clausen wrote:

> Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 22:16:56 -0600
> From: Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>
> Reply-To: dia-list gnome org
> To: dia-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: Dia-list digest, Vol 1 #758 - 5 msgs
>
> On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Alan Horkan wrote:
> > On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Lars Clausen wrote:
> >
> > > > 500 records. Instead of typing them in, I have a file with all of
> > > > these values. I cannot simply open the Dia file with a text editor and
> > > > add them as the file seems to be encrypted or in binary form, so is
> > > > there a way to add this data without having to enter it in through the
> > > > Dia GUI?
> >
> > I pondered the idea of text import/insertion, would be cool to be able to
> > import loads of text and split it up into differnt textboxes based on
> > linebreaks or other string tokens.  For something as much as 500 records
> > autolayout code would be a godsend but now i am off in the blue skies
> > with the wishful thinking and the stream of consciousness and the sleep
> > deprivation and the ... mmmhoi! *
> >
> > > The file isn't encrypted, it's simply gzipped.  You can either uncheck
> > > the option of compressing files when you save the diagram, or
> > > uncompressed the file using gunzip.
> >
> > I would humbley suggest that to avoid these kinds of questions in future
> > that gzip compression be off by default.
> >
> > What are the reasons for having it on by default?
>
> The reason is that XML files tend to be large and very compressible.  For
> instance, the 15K compressed file samples/AST.dia uncompresses to 600K, a
> factor 40.
>
> > If diskspace is really a concern (and i have started to notice
> > the cumulative effect of almost never compressing my files) then
> > being able to save as .dia compressed with bzip2 would be a nice
> > enhancement.
>
> The difference between gzip and bzip2 is a small amount of size and a
> somewhat greater amount of
>
> > I quite like the way Abiword has gzipped abiword as a seperate file
> > format (.zabw).  Adobe Illustrator (amongs others) has gzipped SVG as a
> > seperate format (.svgz).
> >
> > It also makes things simpler when programs dont use the same extension
> > for different contents, but i should know better and use "file" instead
> > of crude guessing based on file extension.
>
> I agree that having a different extension would be nice.  Maybe .diaz?
> .zdia?  I prefer .zdia.

As a fan of Cameron .diaz is tempting but maybe .zgdia or even gzdia/gzd.
(I wont even get carried away like .gnumeric and suggest
.gzipped-diagram).

I guess .zdia makes sense.

Not many people would mistake it for Zip and even i dont think anyone
would think it was unix compress .Z

Should we think of zdia simply as compressed .dia
and make sure not to preclude the future possibility of using other
compression codecs to compress your .zdia file?
(im thinking tar.gz files to include any embedded images, and probably at
some point LZW Zip archives)

Sincerely

Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/