Re: Dia-list digest, Vol 1 #758 - 5 msgs

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Lars Clausen wrote:

> > 500 records. Instead of typing them in, I have a file with all of these
> > values. I cannot simply open the Dia file with a text editor and add
> > them as the file seems to be encrypted or in binary form, so is there a
> > way to add this data without having to enter it in through the Dia GUI?

I pondered the idea of text import/insertion, would be cool to be able to
import loads of text and split it up into differnt textboxes based on
linebreaks or other string tokens.  For something as much as 500 records
autolayout code would be a godsend but now i am off in the blue skies with
the wishful thinking and the stream of consciousness and the sleep
deprivation and the ... mmmhoi! *

> The file isn't encrypted, it's simply gzipped.  You can either uncheck the
> option of compressing files when you save the diagram, or uncompressed the
> file using gunzip.

I would humbley suggest that to avoid these kinds of questions in future
that gzip compression be off by default.

What are the reasons for having it on by default?
If diskspace is really a concern (and i have started to notice
the cumulative effect of almost never compressing my files) then
being able to save as .dia compressed with bzip2 would be a nice
enhancement.

I quite like the way Abiword has gzipped abiword as a seperate file format
(.zabw).
Adobe Illustrator (amongs others) has gzipped SVG as a seperate format
(.svgz).

It also makes things simpler when programs dont use the same extension for
different contents, but i should know better and use "file"  instead of
crude guessing based on file extension.

Sincerely

Alan "thinks he knows computer science" Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/

* Prof. Frink rules.