draw a pretty timeline graphic w/ text?

[Giles Orr]

On 4 November 2010 12:56, CLIFFORD ILKAY <clifford_ilkay-biY6FKoJMRdBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 11/04/2010 06:55 AM, Matt Price wrote:
>> Hi eveyone,
>>
>> I'm trying to do something that seems really simple to me but i still
>> don't know how to do.  I want to draw a timeline that represents the
>> stages of a research project (inception, research, presentation,
>> writing, submission, publication...)  and I would like it to look
>> something like this:
>
> Hi Matt,
>
> I recently learned how to use Graphviz so that I could have fancy diagrams
> in the Trac wiki. I've also used Kivio and Dia, which both work quite well,
> though I prefer the interface of Kivio.
>
> The Graphviz plug-in for Trac enabled me to create diagrams that could be
> viewed right in the wiki without having to download an attachment. I could
> have done that by exporting a Kivio diagram to PNG too, but the advantage of
> the Graphviz plug-in is that I can have hyperlinks in the various symbols to
> other diagrams, Trac tickets, Trac wiki pages, changesets, any web site, in
> short, anything that has a URL. You express the elements and relationships
> between those elements textually and Graphviz lays out the graphs using dot.
> I was fine with the layout it generated so I didn't have to tweak it at all
> but I did have the option of changing the layout if I wanted to.
>
> Here is a very simple graph that has four boxes with arrows joining them
> laid out vertically.
>
> {{{
> #!graphviz
> digraph C {
>
>  node [shape=box, fontsize=12, height=1, width=1.5]; {
>    node [label="Start Process"] start_process;
>    node [label="Create Listing", URL="classifieds-system/create-listing",
> style="filled", fillcolor="pink", color="black"] create_listing;
>    node [label="Login and Pay", URL="classifieds-system/login-and-pay",
> style="filled", fillcolor="pink", color="black"] login_and_pay;
>    node [label="End Process", URL="", fillcolor="white", color="black"]
> end_process;
>    }
>
>  start_process->create_listing;
>  create_listing->login_and_pay;
>  login_and_pay->end_process;
> }
> }}}
>
> The triple braces trigger the Trac Graphiz plug-in macro processor.

I'll add my voice to the recommendations for GraphViz and Dia (not
familiar with Kivio).  But I'm also writing to clarify the difference
between the two: in Dia you explicitly place boxes, circles, and
various other objects on a drawing space, and then link them.  In
GraphViz, you create a text file that says "I want a circle that says
'foo' in it, and a square that says 'bar' in it.  Then draw a line
between the two."  Graphviz makes the decisions about physical spacing
and presentation.  So Dia is probably a lot better for one-offs and
small diagrams, whereas GraphViz is better for the big stuff and
things you're going to maintain and update.  It also has the steeper
learning curve - but it's proven worthwhile for me.  Which is better
for you is going to depend on what you plan on doing with this diagram
in the future.

As a quick demo of graphviz output (this could well convince you to
use dia!, but I can't imagine maintaining it in that program), take a
look at: http://www.gilesorr.com/wm/bloodlines.svg .

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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