[Eug-lug] Re: [PLUG] I Want A Good Linux Software Diagramming Tool!

[Allen Brown]

I was also going to suggest dia.  I have not used it for UML.
Just generalized block diagrams.  Earlier versions have crashed
on me, but I've never gotten a corrupted file.  And in any case,
the file is in XML, so you can edit it.  I've done that quite
a bit when I wanted to do a global edit that dia wanted me to
do the slow way.

I have a map of my house that I did with dia.  It shows all
the outlets and lights and indicates which breaker goes with
each.  I can tell it to hide that layer and instead show
the dimensions of the rooms.  There is quite a bit of info
in the file.  Chances are dia will do what you need.

Some distributions of Linux come with dia pre-installed.  Debian
has a .deb package.  I see there is a UML tutorial near the
top of this page.  http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/links.html
That same page mentions that dia was inspired by visio, so you
may find the transition not too painful.
-- 
Allen Brown
   work: Agilent Technologies      non-work: http://www.peak.org/~abrown/
         allen_brown at agilent.com	            abrown at peak.org
   Help a man when he is in trouble and he will remember you when he is in 
trouble again.


M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> Jason Van Cleve wrote:
> 
>> I think I'm going to lose it, here, fellows.  Visio is the one reason I
>> still rely on Windoesn't for developing software.  UML diagrams are
>> good, and I wouldn't want to design an application without them; but
>> there really isn't a Linux equivalent to Visio.  Argo, last I looked,
>> just doesn't hold a candle.
>>
>> And yet, the Windon't machine I use for this purpose has been
>> spontaneously rebooting--a lot.  And the last couple of times this
>> happened, my Visio document was corrupted, so that Visio wouldn't open
>> it (even denied that it was a Visio file!).  So both times, my work was
>> lost permanently.  This is unacceptable.
>>
>> I wanted to ask you all, once more, if there are ANY good UML tools for
>> Linux--anything better than Argo, just to raise a standard.  But now I'm
>> ready to bust my knuckles on this POS WinXP tower, and I would consider
>> almost any alternative, so long as it's Linux based.
>>
>> Have you UML lovers any creative ideas, tools and techniques, that might
>> help me break my Visio addiction?  I've come to depend on UML diagrams
>> for design; and I'm almost ready to consider pencil and paper, but not
>> quite.  :]
>>
>> --Jason V. C.
>>
>> -- 
>> I'm out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message...
>> _______________________________________________
>> PLUG mailing list
>> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
>> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>>
>>  
>>
> Someone already mentioned Poseidon, which IIRC is written in Java. 
> Technically it's non-free as a result. However, it does have something 
> many other tools don't -- an interface to a performance modelling tool 
> called PEPA, also written in Java. Do a web search for PEPA; it's from 
> Edinburgh IIRC.
> 
> There is also Kivio. The basic tool is free, but I believe added 
> templates cost money. I've never used Kivio. And ... there's Dia. Dia is 
> Gnu free as in freedom, reasonable robust for something with a 0.9x 
> version number, and has add-on software "dia2code" for generating code 
> from UML. I've never used this part of it, so I can't testify to its 
> usability.
> 
> Just in case you're interested in database modeling, Dia also has an 
> add-on that does that, though I've forgotten what it's called. And there 
> is DBDesigner4 -- another package written in Java. I've found that most 
> large-scale Java-based packages run reliably only with the Sun JRE, so 
> be careful.
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