[Sigia-l] Tools: Graphviz, docBook...

[Conal Tuohy]

Jan wrote:

> i would love to hear more about the usage of those tools.
> When do you use Graphviz and when do you utilise an UML Tool?
> Does OmniGraffle support UML (sorry, I am on a PC)?

Graphviz is really a tool for automatic layout of graphs. So you define a graph in terms of nodes and arcs, and Graphviz will push it around on the page for you until it "looks nice". Great for making a useful graphic representation of a hugely complex network of relationships such as the hyperlink structure of a website. I've also used it to visualise module dependencies in Java applications. 

I haven't used OmniGraffle myself (though I've looked at in on the web, and it looks very nice), but I believe it's generic enough to be used with UML or pretty well any graphical notation. 

On a PC platform I've used an open source diagramming program called Dia, which I'd say is similar to OmniGraffle (certainly in the same space, at least). http://www.gnome.org/projects/dia/

Dia uses XML as its file format, so with some scripting skills in XSLT or Perl or something you can set it up as an editor for lots of things. It has a bunch of "palettes" for different diagramming conventions, including UML. I've had a play with it, and wrote some XSLT to convert UML class diagrams into XML Topic Maps. Out of the box you can also generate C or maybe Java classes from it, and SQL too I think.

> When you draw Topic Maps with Graphviz, can Graphviz export the
> documentation in docBook format?

I don't think so, it's just a tools for visualising graphs (i.e. networks) as graphics (pictures).

I'd be interested to hear how Alex has been connecting those things together, too :-)

Con