Re: Dia & Schemas/DTDs

[James Michael DuPont <mdupont777 yahoo com>]

> We have concluded that Dia is not the way to go for us. The main
> reasons for
> this are:
> 
> - Dia is not very extensible. For example, adding extra attributes to
> shapes
> to put extra meta data in is not possible within XML boundaries.

In my opinon as well, we need to completly change the xml layer of dia.


> - Validation of the XML source files is not possible. The problem
> with this
> is that you can not safely write Dia XML in other editors, like a
> XML/text-editor. Additionally, in my opinion, all XML documents
> should be
> validatable.

well by using rdf, we should be able to handle this.

> 
> Like James K. Lowden said earlier, it wouldn't be too easy for us to
> contribute fixes to cover our critism. Maybe there are internal
> architectural changes needed, well that's not easy for an outsider
> and would
> possibly take too much time.

Please work with me to fix these problems.

> 
> To draw our network diagrams, we looking at RDF/GraphViz/IsaViz as
> alternative.Information about RDF:
> http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/01/24/rdf.html
> http://www.w3.org/RDF/

I am working on vcg, a free gpl replacment for graphviz
this will be bound to the librdf data layer as well for layout and
communication with the dia.

> Describing our network in RDF is possible because a descriptional
> view of a
> network consists all of meta data.

I am planning out a librdf layer for dia right now.
Currently we have a beta-test for the librdf layer in the gcc.
when that is stabilized, then we will add it into the dia and vcg.

dont give up on dia just yet, please help me create the next version of
dia with the needed features.

mike

=====
James Michael DuPont
http://introspector.sourceforge.net/

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