14 replies to this topic

[gregwarner]

I'm flowcharting today, and I just sent my assistant to go look to see if we have a copy of Microsoft Visio somewhere buried deep in our piles of old junk.

I was just curious what modelling tools/flowchart software do you use, in what way do you use them, and what's your favorite application and why?

[WingedPanther]

Dynamic Draw

[fread]

Funny two of my courses this semester require us to use flow charts. I think they pointing in the direction of MS expression studio. I wonder what linux offers. Apart from visio, greg, what will you recommend?

[gregwarner]

I can't really speak on behalf of the more advanced UML features, such as code generation, so all I really have in the way of experience to speak from is flowcharts. I've used Gliffy in the past in a pinch, since it's free and accessible online as a web app. However, I appreciate more the convenience of having the software installed on my end, so now that my boss has supplied me with Visio, I'm very happy to use that.

I would love to delve deeper into the code generation features of UML software, meaning, for that I'll have to find myself a proper UML tool. I don't believe Visio can generate Java code.

I was under the impression that MS Expression was more geared toward web development? Are there UML features available within it as well? I've never used it so I have no knowledge of it whatsoever.

[WingedPanther]

Umbrello is a pretty nice tool in the KDE package, that can also read code and build UML diagrams from it.

[gregwarner]

I'll check it out, thanks.

[fread]

Hmm I'm using gnome.

[gregwarner]

At least you're running Linux! I work at a Windows-only business! I'm trying not to even think of the headache of trying to build this on my dev platform! (Cygwin, KDE for Windows, etc...)

Looks like I'll be firing up my virtual machine again.

[fread]

Ill messing around with a piece of software called Dia. Im not sure how powerful it is, or how much flexibility I need for that matter. The semester kind of fresh, we now getting into things.

[gregwarner]

I've heard of that before. I think I tried to install it once and it wouldn't run or something strange like that. I'll give it another look.

[WingedPanther]

fread said:

Hmm I'm using gnome.

You can install KDE apps without all of KDE and they'll still run under gnome. I'm running them under XFCE.

gregwarner said:

At least you're running Linux! I work at a Windows-only business! I'm trying not to even think of the headache of trying to build this on my dev platform! (Cygwin, KDE for Windows, etc...)

Looks like I'll be firing up my virtual machine again.

KDE apps are ported to Windows now. You can run Umbrello as a Windows native app :)

fread said:

Ill messing around with a piece of software called Dia. Im not sure how powerful it is, or how much flexibility I need for that matter. The semester kind of fresh, we now getting into things.

Dia is pretty good, but has a few quirks that annoy me.

[fread]

Well, I am still getting my feet wet so i'll see how it goes. :thumbup1: