Re: a standard for diagram document format

["Michael Ross" <michael e ross gmail com>]

I don't think Dia exists to end the dominance of Visio.

I think Dia exists for people who have the interest in working on an open source diagramming tool to do so.  It gives them the ability to make a diagramming tool that works the way they want it to.  Visio provides no effective mechanism for an individual to steer its development.  Open source does.  This why there are often several open source programs that do the same vaguely related tasks.  For example, GIMP, Inkscape, Dia and so on.  If all one wants is free software, then one must accept what the worker bees have done or join in.  

I think as a general rule open source programs serve and satisfy the people that work on them.  It is only the new users who do not work on them that are dissatisfied.  As a matter of fact enhancing the usability of programs turns out to be a fine way to make them less efficient for experienced power users (not a comment specific to open source programs).

Someone posted a link to a very nice article on just this topic in years past (usability, open source, etc.).  If anyone remembers that link I would love to have it again.

Mike

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 11:57 AM, Andrew Marlow <agents andrewpetermarlow co uk> wrote:

I am really pleased that at last we have ODF for officially defining an open
format for documents. But I think we are still missing the equivalent for
diagrams.

I realise that dia produces output in a number of formats but none of these
are any kind of standard for diagrams that I am aware of. If there was such a
std then dia could be one program among several that implement the std. We
would then see survival of the fitest. Suerly this would be a good thing. At
the moment dia is just one open source diagraming tool among several (albeit,
a good one).

What plans are there to try to arrive at a std? Without one I do not see the
dominance of Visio ever changing.

Regards,

Andrew Marlow
----
http://www.andrewpetermarlow.co.uk
Don't top-post http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html
Plain text mails only, please     http://www.expita.com/nomime.html



_______________________________________________
Dia-list mailing list
Dia-list gnome org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/dia-list
FAQ at http://live.gnome.org/Dia/Faq
Main page at http://live.gnome.org/Dia

-- 
Michael Ross
=================================
Cycling in Central North Carolina
Schwinn Voyageur 11.8
Linear LWB, Greenspeed GTO, BikeE CT, AT