Re: arrows & text

[Lars Clausen <lars raeder dk>]

On Wed, 2005-04-27 at 13:29 +0200, Francisco Borges wrote:
> Hello,
>
> A two questions I cound't find out the asnwer by reading the
> documentation.
>
>
> 1. In the UML figure group there is an arrow with a text entry
> (ie. "Message") whose position changes automatically with the rotation
> of the arrow, but this is somehow a fixed figure, so I can't change the
> arrow end.
>
> Simply grouping won't do since since I can't (?) rotate the
> 'arrow + text' group.
>
> Is there a way to attach the text like this to an "all purpose" arrow?

No.

> If not, where is the "Message" figure defined so that I can try to
> modify it (or is this harder than it seems?)?

The object is objects/UML/message.c.  It's a well-written object that
should be easy to modify (or rather, copy and base a new object one).
Just take out the stuff that deals with the message type and add a
property for the arrow head like the ordinary line
(objects/standard/line.c).

> 2. Often I need an arrow with head (and tail) like this (to indicate the
> lenght of a vector):
>
>                     |
>          -----------|
>                     |
>
>
> with all the distinct arrow heads available I wonder why this is not
> available out of the box. Is there some diagrams in all the different
> groups shipped with dia that does this?

Nobody asked for it.  We haven't done a survey of all the arrowheads in
use in various fields, people have just added them when needed.  This
one should be very easy to add.

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen <lars raeder dk>