(1) Allow bitmaps (2) explain UML in hint and icon

[DarkTrick]

Disclaimer: Afaik I can only make 1 post per day as newbie on discourse, so I put both topics in one thread.

(1) Dia v0.97 does not allow to paste bitmaps. Adding that feature would be really helpful so explain certain GUI classes within class diagrams.

(2) If you don’t use UML regularly you get confused with where arrows have to point, so an explanation right on top of the icons would be nice.

I suggest something like this in the left side pane:

While the on-hover-hints are something like:

• B realizes / implements interface A
• B inherits class A
• …

[zbrown (Zander Brown)]

@DarkTrick

Disclaimer: Afaik I can only make 1 post per day as newbie on discourse, so I put both topics in one thread.

Interesting, didn’t know that was a thing

@DarkTrick

(1) Dia v0.97 does not allow to paste bitmaps. Adding that feature would be really helpful so explain certain GUI classes within class diagrams.

Dia Nightly does have this feature, you can grab the flatpak for the GNOME nightly apps repo (though beware unpolished code)

@DarkTrick

(2) If you don’t use UML regularly you get confused with where arrows have to point, so an explanation right on top of the icons would be nice.

Dia 0.97 (as shipped by Fedora, no two 0.97 distros are the same…) already has tooltips in the toolbox (though these could be expanded upon perhaps) - not sure adding A/B annotation to already quite complex little icons helps much

Thanks for using Dia! By the end of 2021 I’m hoping to have completed the port to gtk3 and potentially begin gtk4 - No promises about when any of this might get a stable release

[DarkTrick]

@zbrown

Dia Nightly does have this feature, you can grab the flatpak for the GNOME nightly apps repo (though beware unpolished code)

Awesome! Sorry for bothering you, then. I’ll hope Ubuntu will update its repositories soon

@zbrown

Dia 0.97 (as shipped by Fedora, no two 0.97 distros are the same…) already has tooltips in the toolbox

I also have tooltips here. However, e.g. Aggregation, one class is part of another does not clear up the direction.

@zbrown

not sure adding A/B annotation to already quite complex little icons helps much

Valid point. Maybe there’s another way of making the tooltip more explanatory? Is it possible to e.g. add a bigger icon inside the tooltip?

A rationale on this point: I think UML is a “tool”, that is not necessarily used everyday by the users of Dia. Therefore, if Dia is more explanatory regarding UML (in whichever way), than actually needed might be helpful for the UX (maybe even a tooltip on the drawn aggregation line that says <Object1> is a shared object in <Object2> where Object1/2 are filled in by the names of the real entities in the diagram).

@zbrown

Thanks for using Dia

Kidding? Thanks for developing it! Out of about 20+ tools I’ve tested, Dia was the only decent one! Including paid software! (Sure, there is room for UI improvements, but most important stuff works )

[zbrown (Zander Brown)]

@DarkTrick

Maybe there’s another way of making the tooltip more explanatory?

Should be fairly simple to allow objects to provide an “extra description” (vs a simple name)

Of course we don’t want to make tooltips too complex, perhaps a revamped user manual would be a better place for a UML overview (where we could embed examples) that people can have open alongside their diagram

@DarkTrick

maybe even a tooltip on the drawn aggregation line

Certainly an interesting idea, not currently easy to implement but a very interesting idea

@DarkTrick

Kidding? Thanks for developing it! Out of about 20+ tools I’ve tested, Dia was the only decent one! Including paid software! (Sure, there is room for UI improvements, but most important stuff works )

Dia was a bit of a revelation for me as well, next thing I knew I was the maintainer. A lot of very talented people have worked on Dia over the past 20+ years, I’m just the guy trying not to break it