Question

I develop a tool that generates block-diagrams for software engineering documentation. This is done “in memory”: my tool has no graphical outputs (it is just a set of algorithms).

These block diagram are colored rectangles with attributes (name,…). They have input/output ports (smaller rectangle with name), and the wiring between ports. etc. I manage the graphical position of all these elements in my own tool.

I would like to know if Inkscape could be a good candidate to display the result of my algorithms (other well known tools like Graphviz, tulip, etc have turned to be inadequate).

I guess the answer can be ‘yes!’ but what formats are used to feed Inkscape ? Are they easy and documented ? xml or whatever ?

Then can I control Inkscape from outside to generate pdf, png etc ? FYI, my tool is written in Ruby.

Any idea ?

ps : the kind of thing I could generate looks like this example

Answer 1

• Concerning the import, SVG is the answer : I just need to analyze the content of a reasonable subset of it to fulfill my requirements.
• Concerning the control of Inkscape, this is really possible, through scripting.