Re: Suggestions

[Raymond Kennington <raymondwk optusnet com au>]

Hello.

I've finished my current task using Dia, but would like to have proper DFD 
symbols. Yourdon's DFDs were taught at the University of South Australia for at 
least the 10 years that I was there, an I used them for 12 years in my business 
developing software for companies.

Yes, I can use rectangles for data stores, but visually this is not good enough; 
they are not distinguishable from other external entities.

i would really like circles and ellipses that I have to change the shape of 
every time.

At the end of my current project, I will look into contributing to Dia a page 
for the required symbols.

On 18/12/2012 08:21, Hans Breuer wrote:
> At 17.12.2012 18:13, Raymond Kennington wrote:
> > Context Menu
> > Enter Text Edit Mode
> Context menus are object specific in Dia. Text editing already is in the menu 
> and in the toolbar and available via hotkey and can be activated by click and 
> hold. IIRC all these options are described in the manual. Adding just a fifth 
> way does not look feasible to me.
I can generally get by without having to read manuals.

It is very common to have commonly-used tasks on a context menu. The main menu 
and toolbars requires too much effort, especially on large LCD screens with 
large diagrams.

Adding suitable context-menu items makes the experience of using a program much 
better - and takes almost no time to implement and test.

> > Selected Symbols Properties: Set size
> > e.g. selected ellipses to be circles of the same size
> Sorry, I don't understand. But maybe it is similar to what was attemted with 
> https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=328200 ?

1. Select 4 ellipses with SHIFT-Clicks.

2. Right-Click for the context menu.

3. Select Properties - nothing happens.

I expect to be able to alter the properties of the ellipses as the same time, 
and two of those properties should be the height and the width.

Other properties should include the font properties and the background colours.

> > Required: a symbol page for Yourdon's Data Flow Diagrams (DFD).
> See Michael's mail but maybe also check
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_flow_diagram
Thanks, but see my initial comment above.

In my work, Yourdon's DFDs are essential.

> Dia already supports SADT/IDEFO and Gane&Sarson diagrams. Does it really need 
> yet another notation for data flow diagrams?
Yes.

I have tried Gane & Sarson's symbology and the clients didn't understand them as 
well as Yourdon's.

In about 4 months, I will have almost one hundred pages of DFDs to convert from 
ABC Flowcharter to something else. I am hoping it will be Dia.

Regards,
Raymond
--
Dr. Raymond Kennington