What program for authoring flowcharts

[Doug]

On 06/12/2012 11:00 AM, Ryan Gauger wrote:
> On 06/12/2012 08:56 AM, Steve Flynn wrote:
>> On 12 June 2012 14:48, Kevin O'Gorman<kogorman at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>>>> I do all of my graphical documentation using GraphViz
>>>> (http://www.graphviz.org/).
>>>>
>>>> Any use?
>>> Interesting idea.  I didn't know about this package.  However....
>>>
>>> It's not obvious how best to use this for flowcharts.  I like to
>>> control layout, but much of the purpose of this package seems to be to
>>> do automatic layout.  Moreover, there's a lot of markup I usually do
>>> -- mainly cross-references between pages, but commentary too -- that
>>> doesn't seem to fit in.
>> Indeed - that was why I was hesitant in suggesting it to you. Whilst I
>> rarely have to write flowcharts I do a lot of state diagrams, which
>> can get quite complex - the algorithmic layout engine can make the
>> best of a tough job for me. How you'd fare with trying to generate a
>> flowchart is a bit of an unknown.
>>
>> A quick google search throws up
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentbye/sets/72157601523153827/detail/ (I
>> can't see the pictures on there thanks to the proxy here at work)
>>
> IMHO, the best way to create a flowchart is with either OpenOffice 
> Draw, or LibreOffice Draw. I don't know if there is still a way to 
> install OpenOffice, since LibreOffice has replaced it starting with 
> Natty. Thanks!
>
Using another KDE distro (pclos) I decided to try OO--I installed it 
from their website.
It comes in RPM format, so you should be able to install it without a 
problem in
a KDE distro.  I also have LO on the machine, and IBM Symphony, and they 
don't
interfere with each other.  In spite of some serious glitches in 
Symphony, I much
prefer it--it looks and acts "finished" even tho it's actually not. But 
I don't do
flowcharts with any of them.  Absent a real flow-chart program, I'd go 
to Windows
and use AutoCAD.  And if I had to do flowcharts on a regular basis, I'd 
buy a
program, and if it had to run on Windows, so be it!  The correlations 
and so on
in a real flow-charter beats heck out of just drawing boxes and lines.

--doug



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