From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.comp.tex.context/40678 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Aditya Mahajan Newsgroups: gmane.comp.tex.context Subject: Re: metapsot vs. graphviz Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:45:12 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: References: <87wsmnnwzo.fsf@nitai.hr> Reply-To: mailing list for ConTeXt users NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1209048384 6631 80.91.229.12 (24 Apr 2008 14:46:24 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:46:24 +0000 (UTC) To: mailing list for ConTeXt users Original-X-From: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Thu Apr 24 16:47:00 2008 connect(): Connection refused Return-path: Envelope-to: gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl ([131.211.172.88] helo=ronja.ntg.nl) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1Jp2ii-0003Xb-85 for gctc-ntg-context-518@m.gmane.org; Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:46:44 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6AE6B1FD06; Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:46:02 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 13278-01-3; Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:45:14 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.vet.uu.nl (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 51C161FC45; Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:45:14 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2A8E21FC32 for ; Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:45:12 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ronja.ntg.nl ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (smtp.ntg.nl [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with LMTP id 12036-01-16 for ; Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:44:38 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from tombraider.mr.itd.umich.edu (smtp.mail.umich.edu [141.211.93.161]) by ronja.ntg.nl (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8399E1FCC7 for ; Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:44:38 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: FROM adi-laptop.local (c-68-40-40-75.hsd1.mi.comcast.net [68.40.40.75]) BY tombraider.mr.itd.umich.edu ID 48109CD2.A1D86.3752 ; 24 Apr 2008 10:44:35 -0400 In-Reply-To: <87wsmnnwzo.fsf@nitai.hr> User-Agent: Alpine 1.00 (DEB 882 2007-12-20) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl X-BeenThere: ntg-context@ntg.nl X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9 Precedence: list List-Id: mailing list for ConTeXt users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl Errors-To: ntg-context-bounces@ntg.nl X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at ntg.nl Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.tex.context:40678 Archived-At: On Thu, 24 Apr 2008, Gour wrote: > Hi! > > While writing some written assignments I have a need to draw some simple > diagrams. > > Tried with Dia, but it's not superb. That's why I'm thinking about > learning some graphic programming language... > > Anyone familiar with metapost & graphviz can write few words how the two > compare? Metapost is for drawing all kinds of graphics. It give you a very fine control on where to place objects, and is very well integrated with ConTeXt (your labels will be the same font as the rest of the document). With the new mplib, using metapost in ConTeXt is very fast (for me I do not notice any difference; with mkii it used to take aboud 3-4 sec). Graphviz is good for automatic positioning of nodes. If you have a large number of nodes, it can figure out the best way to place them. There are different versions, dot (for directed graphs), circo (for circular graphs), neato (for undirected graphs), fps (uses a different model for undirected graphs). For most of the cases, the output is average: the node placement is very good, but then it is difficult to get tex to process the labels, it is limited in terms of color effects that you can get. I find it very hard to modify the output. Graphiz does give metapost output, but I found it to be a bit akward to use. The good part about graphiz is that is very easy to learn, and for most cases the output is acceptable. > Any other suggestion? There is dot2tex, which a python script that converts from dot (graphviz) to tikz. I have not tried it, but from the examples it appears to remove all the drawbacks of integrated graphviz with tex. It is tailored towards integration with latex, but it should not be too hard to configure it for context. Aditya ___________________________________________________________________________________ If your question is of interest to others as well, please add an entry to the Wiki! maillist : ntg-context@ntg.nl / http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context webpage : http://www.pragma-ade.nl / http://tex.aanhet.net archive : https://foundry.supelec.fr/projects/contextrev/ wiki : http://contextgarden.net ___________________________________________________________________________________