[instaviz-users] Instaviz, but on computers

[Glen Low]

Roger

On 23/03/2009, at 4:50 AM, Roger Taylor wrote:

> Thanks, but I'm not a programmer, so I'd need something with a  
> modern GUI.
>
> Someone mentioned OmniGraffle, which I already have (and love).  
> Unfortunately it is Mac only and it  doesn't allow exporting to .dot  
> files.
>
> I do educational research in poor K-12 schools, and they don't have  
> the funds to buy the dozens of copies of "Inspiration" - which is  
> the only comparable cross-platform software on the market.
>
> Here's my dream software: A cross-platform open-source program that  
> uses the .dot language, but is easy enough for normal users.

You could try Dia, which is a Linux program "inspired by Visio."

http://live.gnome.org/Dia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia_(software)

At some stage there was a way to convert between Dia and Graphviz  
formats, I'm not sure how well that is supported nowadays.

They have both Linux and Windows versions but don't seem to have any  
Mac versions available. It would probably involve someone hacking on  
the sources to get it to compile and run on the Mac, or perhaps  
MacPorts has a version.

Google hits on:
"dia" "diagram" -- 1.3 million
"graphviz" -- 850,000
"visio" -- 17.2 million
"smartdraw" -- 1.6 million
"conceptdraw" -- 669,000
"omnigraffle" -- 280,000

As you can see Dia is quite popular.





Cheers, Glen Low


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