Comments on: Block Diagram Tool?
REBOL Technologies

Comments on: Block Diagram Tool?

Carl Sassenrath, CTO
REBOL Technologies
13-Sep-2006 16:23 GMT

Article #0295
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I am looking for a block diagram tool (written in REBOL).

It does not need to be fancy. I simply need to be able to create boxes (with text labels) and lines with arrows. The output could be a DRAW block or a PNG file.

I would prefer to use REBOL for this tool, rather than download a shareware program, etc.

If you know of such a tool, please let me know. Thanks.

17 Comments

Comments:

J-F
13-Sep-2006 14:59:47
Hey Carl, Have a look here: http://www.reboltalk.com/forum/index.php/topic,315.0.html
J-F
13-Sep-2006 16:08:45
You can also find Yed here: http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.htm

Not Rebol, but lets say you have a thousand nodes, Rebol could be used to write the input file. I think it could be a good combo to visualize a forum.

Carl Sassenrath
13-Sep-2006 20:37:36
Thanks J-F for the links. I will look.

I should mention that I have a variety of other tools here (both professional and shareware/freeware). But they are registered to a single computer system, or they have timed-out, or they crash, or they are METOD (make easy things overly difficult). I really miss the MacDraw days.

It seem to me that by now there should be a diagram tool in REBOL. The new DRAW dialect can do it quite nicely.

Henrik
13-Sep-2006 20:43:33
It's a "pity" that OmniGraffle for MacOSX is not available for multiple platforms. It's my favorite by far.

About DRAW, we still miss proper font handling inside DRAW blocks (no easy way to center text), so I don't know if I would say that it's perfect for that yet. :-)

Norm
14-Sep-2006 0:07:08
In software ing, many use open source Graphviz: www.graphviz.org

See news: "New plug-in architecture for layout, scripting languages and renderers (Oct. 2005) Graphviz now has a more modular architecture that supports multiple layout engines, scripting languages, and renderers. About a dozen scripting languages, including perl, python, tcl and ruby are supported."

The file format straightforward a->b, with many options.

Graham
14-Sep-2006 2:54:22
How about Chris' knowledge map tool

http://www.langreiter.com/space/3flex

Think it's broken on 1.3, but works for 1.2.8

J-F
14-Sep-2006 10:03:15
The first link I put at the top is about 3flex and the cure to make it work.
Philippe
15-Sep-2006 3:44:31
Hello, Carl,

I often use Graphviz : syntax is simple, and readable. I put on Library a script to use graphviz dll with com2rebol from benjamin Maggi (graphviz2rebol.r, 5 April). Not true rebol script. You could use also this link : http://ashitani.jp/gv/ to draw graphics quickly with graphviz syntax (Ajax & Python CGI)

About 3Flex, sorry, it works with 1.3, with some corrections, see item "3Flex", on http://reboltalk/ in Codes/examples/variables : May 16, 2006, 05:07:22 AM .

I put also on my web site some View effects (linked box or with nudges) : http://pl.legoff.free.fr/docs/informatique/rebol/view-effect-gallery.html. Some code comes from you !(layout-1.8.r).

Michael
15-Sep-2006 9:34:41
Surely everyone who has read these comments (and the graphviz links) is thinking the same thing --> Hey, someone needs to write a graphviz-like (i.e., DOT-like) Rebol dialect. Wow, just think if you could do graphviz-like stuff within Rebol (which uses Anti-Grain Geometry) .

That would mean: Rebol+AGG+DOT = high quality graphing environment

I can't stop thinking about it.

Robert
15-Sep-2006 11:21:25
I use the yworks stuff as it has graph layout included. That's what I need. I don't want to fiddle around with this.
chl
16-Sep-2006 15:27:19
I've now updated 3flex with the fixes supplied by Philippe (merci beaucoup!) and some more regarding saving/loading.

If you find additional ones, please let me know!

Anton Rolls
18-Sep-2006 10:50:09
Ah.. I keep dreaming of such a tool, but only managed some little ideas on the way to it. http://anton.wildit.net.au/rebol/doc/rebol-values.r http://anton.wildit.net.au/rebol/doc/event-flow-diagram.r
Maxim Olivier-Adlhoch
18-Sep-2006 23:31:42
strange that you would ask, as I am in the process of writing one !

knowing that someone wants to use it... I might be tempted in encapping a more finished version...

Village Idiot
26-Sep-2006 19:23:58
You must be looking for something more comprehensive than what you've already done in REBOL/View, but the Block Diagram on rebol.com/pre-view.html looked pretty good to me. But you probably want something more interactive......
Anton Rolls
11-Oct-2006 2:50:39
Hi Carl, try this:

do http://anton.wildit.net.au/rebol/doc/bubble-doc.r

(Note, on close it creates a file currently hard-coded to: %bubble-workstate.r)

Anton Rolls
11-Oct-2006 3:06:53
I should mention the native format is LAYOUT dialect, not DRAW dialect, but I'm planning to export DRAW dialect too.
Robbie Armour
29-Oct-2006 18:49:04
Hi Carl

Have you tried Inkscape at www.inkscape.org - it's maybe the mighty MacDraw's grandson?

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