Thoughts on the Project

[Josh Ventura <JoshV zoominternet net>]

Between Dia and InkScape, Dia is certainly the more convenient for
manufacturing flow charts. Dia seems to have come a long way, and is
relatively stable as far as I can tell. It never lags or causes
slowdown, either, unlike InkScape sometimes. However, I feel there are
some features missing that should really be implemented.

Since Dia seems centered around the idea of flow charts, I think it
would be frugal for it to make beautifying them a little more
convenient. I'm talking of setting relationships between certain objects
in the editor. Dia already has a fair amount of that, but it seems
lacking at times. For instance, say I create two bubbles, side by side
horizontally, and link them with an arrow. If I drag from one center
point to the other, it will look great however I position it, because
Dia is just nice like that. But for now, I leave them horizontal, and I
add label text. The label text looks hideous. I'm not blaming anyone for
that; it just does. But, no harm done; I double click and manipulate a
few settings. This is a pain, but it looks at least centered and in the
right place when I'm done.

But then I drag the right bubble under the left, and it's hideous as
ever as the line bisects my label.

Dia is still young; I figure it's likely that there are plans to do
something about all this. My personal suggestion is to take something
from InkScape and allow mouseover to highlight objects. Then implement
some mousewheel tricks to increase padding. Give text a bounding box
that the object to which it is connected cannot cross (Only for edges,
of course, or it will be a bad day for text centered in an object). ANd
speaking of, I personally suggest that text be centered when placed in
the center of an object, and aligned in the opposite direction of that
by which it is bound to an object. For instance, if I connect it to the
bottom-left corner of a circle initially, the align point should be on
the top left of the text box. That would alleviate a number of ugliness
problems.

That's a lot of work as it is, but I've one more suggestion after that.

Dia implements a tool you call "Zigzagline." That line has no bind
points on it. This makes me sad. I was thinking one at each fold and
each midpoint between folds would be really nice...

Anyway. I've not gone without noticing all the features like those that
are already implemented. I mentioned how nicely Dia handles arrows when
placed at center points of objects; how it automatically uses an
imaginary point nearest the object on the opposite side of the line.
That's brilliant. I notice that dragging an orange handle on Zigzag
lines makes them permanent and preserves their form. Very useful. It's
those little things that make projects like this infinitely more usable.
Because honestly, if I had to configure all that directional crap in
that properties dialog, I would tear my hair out. And I imagine your
developers have felt the same way implementing the mechanism that
chooses directions now. 

So. Best of luck with your project; just thought I'd give my thoughts.
Kudos on your current progress.

-Josh