some more problems

I really do not want to appear as nagging... I just like having a tool
like that, and I used it for some of the things I have to do. But
then, problems arise...

So here is the latest:

- I would love to be able to import another isv file, not only an rdf
file. Here is what I need it for: I use an RDF vocabulary which is a
bit large. I have therefore created a project, typed in all the
properties in their own namespaces. I then store an empty project that
way.

When I have to create a concrete RDF, the only way I can do it now is
to start with the empty one I created above, add nodes and links, and
store the project as a separate file. But if I wanted to have several
of those empty projects, I would like to import them... I tried, it
did not work.

- during editing, the tip of the arrowheads should touch the boundary of a
resource. Currently the full arrowhead is inside the object.

- some manual editing features would be nice (I know it is extra
work...). Eg, aligning a set of objects vertically, horizontally,
distributing them, etc. Adding some attributes to some of the
geometric elements (eg, colour) would also be great...

- I experienced a problem when I rerun a graph through dot. I am
warned that the geometry will change, and that there is no return: fair
enough. However, some other things change, too, like:
        - the namespace prefix I had chosen for my own predicates (it
        simply disappears)
        - all resources, previously set as 'URI' are flipped to 'ID'
        - the (nice) display prefix flag on namespaces on the right get all unset

- zoom in seems to hit a limit prematurely. I am not sure how, but
sometimes I cannot zoom in any more although it would really make
sense. As if the original way of creating the graph was the limit, but
I am not sure

- the property browser display is strange: it leaves a very large
vertical space around each item

- the use for abbreviated RDF syntax is great but I wonder whether
there should not be a way of a finer control. If one has very deep
graphs, that will create a very deeply nested XML file. For
readability, I might want to 'break' this somehow, and put a resource
back to the top level (but only that one). Would be nice to be able to
control that.

- (I might be wrong on this one!) the current system does not allow me
to use the same literal twice as an object of a predicate (as the
target of an arrow). On the other hand, as far as I remember, sirpac
generates a graph with a shared node there, I guess implicitly meaning
a replication of the literal. It is very handy if one has, for
example, a literal 'true' or 'false', because it reduces the visual
clutter of the graph. With isaviz, I may have to repeat the literal as
many times as I want to use it...


Ivan

  

------

Ivan Herman
Head of Offices, World Wide Web Consortium
C/o Dutch Office of W3C at CWI
Kruislaan 413, 1098SJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel: +31 20 5924163
fax: +31 20 5924312
mobile: +33 6 0887 2517
URI: http://www.w3.org/People/all#ivan

Received on Tuesday, 19 March 2002 07:57:12 UTC