[YLUG] Parsable Rack Diagrams

[Alex Smith]

Steve Kemp wrote:
> <boink>
>
>     [    psu    ]
>     [  server1  ]
>     [  server2  ]
>     ...
>     [] legs ;) []
>
>   You *might* find that you can draw the diagram in Dia, then
>  parse the XML - since it would literally just contain 
>  N * "box + text label" pairs.
>
> Steve
> --
>   
Steve,

Not quite. I already have a handdrawn set of diagrams of about 40 racks. 
I need to put these into a parsable, text based format. The image 
section was overstressed by using the phrase "diagram".

My userspecs are basically to make sure that the racks can be recorded 
in something parsable, so say *for instance* a perl script is run on 
whatever the files are stored as, it'll be able to actually do something 
with the data (which rules out #drawing# these in visio ;)

Although I appreciate that Dia might do the diagramming bit fine - the 
prospect of drawing 40 racks and then having to decipher them later 
makes my palms sweaty.

Additionally, I need to be able to store certain information about the 
racks (ie, IP, manufacturer, etc), which I don't think would be easy to 
do in dia?

Anyway, thanks for your help - it certainly gives me something to think 
about. I have a terrible habit of not properly explaining my user-reqs 
before I email them, so I'll try to be a bit clearer in the future. ;)

Alex.