For years we have been anticipating the arrival of practical pen-based systems. With the introduction of the TabletPC and the next generation hardware that should be coming soon, I think that time might be now.
Imagine drawing your diagrams with a pen. It could recognize certain shapes and create corresponding nodes; it could recognize your drawing links between nodes; it could recognize your handwriting and (optionally) convert it to text; it could hold your drawings (as icons); it could support layers of casual annotations.
We don’t have any firm plans for introducing a version of GoDiagram for the TabletPC, but I’d like to know how interested you would be in such a product. Have you even thought about pen-enabling your applications? In what scenarios could you see a “GoDiagram for TabletPC” being used? What features would you like to see in such a product?
Also, are there any other platforms or underlying technologies that you think we should be considering?
—Walter
Walter, Having had contact with GoDiagram in the past and watching its development… the TabletPC is just a natural extention… just a few comments… The use of good pallette functions will become increasingly important… with a pen “painting” a diagram using palettes becomes a focus for good ergonomics… Currently a good pallette design for GoDiagram is usually inherited from the demo examples… anything that can be done with enhanced functions to build and manipulate pallets would be helpful to us non creative types… also (and I suspect this is a big one) as one gets the opportunity to “paint” more with a tablet… SVG graphics would be a boon to application aesthetics (resizing, scalability and just plain old realistic/clear representations of objects in diagrams)… And while I am on a wish list… here is one for an outside time line… I am a big fan of using using diagramming tools to visually construct alternative changes to management strategies (ala Covingo, or to an extreme products like Sim-City)… as .Net progresses… DirectX9 and it’s support in Longhorn and possible in GoDisagram is looking like a potential opportunity…
Looking forward to picking up GoDiagram again on my next project…
Joe Licata