[Wylug-discuss] Diagramming software

[Dave Fisher]

On Thu, Dec 20, 2007 at 05:04:53PM +0000, postmaster at chris-street.demon.co.uk wrote:
> After peoples thoughts on a suitable Linux program to fulfill the same functions as Microsoft Visio. 

As previously noted, Dia is often dire.  Most notably, in its inability
to scale text labels proportionally to the objects they describe ... in
fact the biggest headache is that its screen font sizes and positions
bear little relation to their sizes and positions in print or in other
vector file formats, e.g. PDF and SVG.

In your position, I'd consider using Dia or Kvisio as filters to convert
your old files to a more sensible format, like SVG, then use a generic
vector drawing package to tweak and draw originals.

Personally, I use Inkscape for most of my diagrams these days.

Occasionally I revert to Xfig, for its wider range of default symbols,
line decorations, shapes, etc.  Xfig's interface and graphic metaphors
are unusual these days, although often more efficient than the gnome
usability police would like to admit.  That said, it too suffers from
poor font handling.

I'd use Inkscape for pretty-much all diagram work, if my packages
provided a comprehensive libary of shapes, symbols, etc.

Does anyone know where I might lay my hands on such libraries?

Dave