Re: design docs and diagrams

[Guy Hulbert <gu...@bioinfo.sickkids.on.ca>]

On Sun, 9 Jul 2000, Randall J. Parr wrote:

	<snip>

RJP> I heartily agree that many (most) of the open source projects I've worked
RJP> with would benefit greatly from requirements and design documentation;
RJP> most especially some diagrams. I find that a dozen or so good diagrams

	<snip>

RJP> I also agree that part of the problem is free and/or affordable tools. I
RJP> have and use Visio, Rational Rose, Oracle Designer, and others. I too am
RJP> looking hopefully towards the next release of ArgoUML and Dia. I would
RJP> really like to be free of high-cost, proprietary, MS WINDOWS based tools.

Personally, I use xfig for "drawing".

RJP> 
RJP> I think there are other factors which do more to discourage the use of
RJP> these diagrams in open-source projects. After all, I use Rose, Visio,
RJP> etc. to produce a diagram in a standard graphic format (GIF, EPS, ...)
RJP> which I then use in documentation or communication.

Unless you need anything more than templates and pictures (if all you need is
a "diagram") then Xfig is fine.  I thought that some of these commercial tools
also were useful for code generation etc.

The fig format is pure text, extremely simple and well-documented and a free
UML tool that used this format would probably not be too hard to create and
would have the added bonus that the diagrams would be loaded into Xfig for
editing etc.

	<snip>

----
Guy Hulbert, Informatics Director	Bioinformatics Supercomputing Centre
(416) 813-8876				555 University Avenue
email: guy@bioinfo.sickkids.on.ca	The Hospital for Sick Children
http:  www.bioinfo.sickkids.on.ca	Toronto, ON, M5G 1X8, CANADA.