Re: Patch to custom object: object-specific properties (preliminary)

["Marco Contenti" <m contenti libero it>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lars Clausen"
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 8:59 AM


On 14 Nov 2003, Marco Contenti wrote:
> Hello, here is a very first version of what I described last week. Now
> only four types are supported. It seems it's working. Please try using it
> and tell me what you think about.
>
> Apply the patch to files in <dia>/object/custom, then try using the
modified
> resistor shape I'm attaching or try making your own, it's simple, just
> insert your custom attributes in the shape like this:
> <shape ... >
> ...
> <ext_attributes>
> <attribute name="ID" type="string"/>
> <attribute name="Resistance (ohms)" type="int"/>
> <attribute name="Power dissipation (W)" type="real"/>
> <attribute name="SMD package" type="bool"/>
> </ext_attributes>
> ...
> </shape>

I'm still wondering why you don't put these together with the normal
attributes.  Since they're statically defined on the shapes, there's
nothing to distinguish them from the other attributes anyway, so you could
save some work & complexity by using the regular attributes mechanism.

___

Just because I don't want to have a fixed set of attributes for ALL custom
objects, but a different set for each object type (=shape).
What I'd like to do in next step (but this is a bit specific to my
application) is being able to reload a shape info without shutting down Dia,
after the user has changed its characteristics (connection points, text
labels, extended attributes) in a user-friendly way by editing a related
diagram.
I never checked out, but I think that at least some of the above is
implemented in MS Visio.

Marco