Graphviz and Inkscape for vector drawings

I have been using xfig for years for drawing vector drawings. Recently, I got interested in two software for my drawing needs - Graphviz and Inkscape.

Graphviz is awesome when it comes to generating graphs from a program. An awesome tool for automation. I found Graphviz also useful when you want a quick graph, you don't have much time and you don't care about the exact layout. Being a lazy person I am, Graphviz adds nicely to my toolkits for lazy person - Perl, Gnuplot, Image Magick, and Graphviz. Write a quick text file describing the graph, run the 'dot' command of Graphviz package and you get a nice graph.

Inkscape looks good, but it is giving me some tough time. When I compare it with xfig, I can say that although xfig is less ambitious, but it is complete and stable. Inkscape is neither complete nor stable. But it is very ambitious and has lot of features. I am still learning my way around in Inkscape. Here are some resources:

1. Tutorials
2. A Quick Guide to Inkscape - this is really a very good guide.
3. Inkscape: A guide to a vector drawing program (html version of the book)

Inkscape seems to be quite popular, so I am going to stick with it for a while and hopefully I don't have to go back to xfig. As I can envision, my main use of Inkscape would be to use it to create technical drawings for publishing, because for everything else GIMP is there. In the worst case, probably I have to edit the SVG file manually if I couldn't find a way to do something in Inkscape.

The reason I like Inkscape over xfig is because

• it does not introduce any new format and uses existing SVG format which seems a better choice in long term - more compatibility with other apps.
• it has much more updated UI which is easier on eyes.
• it has lot of features and many more things can be done.

Windows 7 Tools

Here are some tools and resources which are available from Microsoft for Windows. I am keeping them here for my reference since I forget them when I need them.

1. Windows SDK
2. Windows Sysinternals
3. Debugging Tools for Windows
4. Windows Driver Kit
5. Interoperability @ Microsoft
6. Microsoft Windows Services for Unix, Subsystem for Unix-based Applications
   
7. Microsoft DreamSpark
8. Microsoft Download Center
   

Windows 7 Internals

I found following resources on Windows 7 Internals:

Windows Sysinternal Tools

These are great tools to look under the hood.

- Run these tools online from http://live.sysinternals.com/
- Download
- Website


Video Resources

- A video of a presentation explaining Windows Vista Kernel changes [ An article on the same ]
- A video of a presentation explaining Windows Vista UAC Internals [ An article on the same ]


Reading Resources

- Widows Internal Book 5th Edition

- Article: Inside Windows Vista Kernel

1. Part 1
   
2. Part 2
3. Part 3

PortableApps.com is awesome

I have been using PortableApps.com on and off for last few years. But now I have decided to use as many apps from PortableApps.com as possible.

With Portable apps, switching machines is so easy.

Sometimes I use my laptop as primary machine, sometimes my desktop in the lab/office. And it is really cumbersome to keep both machines in sync in terms of applications, settings and data. Even if you don't want to use usb flash drive all the time, install Portable Apps on the hard disk.

Recently I decided to make a new Windows 7 machine as my primary desktop, it was a pain installing all the apps, copying files, and setting all the settings. Had it been Portable Apps, all I needed was to copy the folder and done!

For multiple users case: When there are multiple users working on the same computer, then every user has his own copy of Portable Apps and there is no conflict.

Few minutes back I installed GIMP, I am going to uninstall it and get it from PortablApps.com! Done! There are other candidates too for a move to Portable Apps start menu like Gvim, I will do them later.

Installing and uninstalling software can give you a perception of having power and it can be fun. But after a while (actually may be a few years), you get tired. Or, you just don't have time for the stupid computer. PortableApps.com is your friend.

I hope somebody comes with PortableApps for Linux/Ubuntu too.

Opening ".iso" files on Windows 7

Windows 7 can burn ".iso" file on a disk if there is a disk burner on the computer. But unfortunately, it can't open/mount ".iso" file for browsing. Microsoft missed it again.

In any modern OS today, I would expect out of the box support for ".iso" file format. It is a very popular and non-proprietary format. Strangely, I needed "iso" reader/mounter because when I downloaded Microsoft Expression Studio from Microsoft's DreamSpark website, it came in ".iso" format.

Here is a free software I found which does the job quite nicely - Virtual CloneDrive from SlySoft. So far this has been working well for me.

Just now I found that 7-zip supports reading ISO files. Download it from http://portableapps.com/ or http://www.7-zip.org/.

LatexEditor DVI viewer not working

I have installed LatexEditor (LEd) on Windows 7 and its in-built DVI viewer does not work. I uninstalled LEd, ghosscript, and MikTex and reinstalled them, but that didn't help.

I tried suggestions from the following links:
http://www.latexeditor.org/download_main.html
http://www.latexeditor.org/how_to_start.html

but couldn't make DVI viewer working. There does not seem to be much information on Internet about LEd.

The cross-jumping between TEX file and the DVI file is the coolest feature of LEd, and it is not working.

I don't have time to do any more investigations, but I might try on my Windows XP box.

Update:
It worked for me!!!

Here is what I did:
After suggestion from ImAn, I went to the LED forum and checked the DVI Viewer section. This post helped me:
LEd 0.52/MikTeX 2.7-I still can't see anything in DVI previe

1. I copied "dvi_miktex27.dll" in "miktex\bin" directory

C:\Program Files>copy LEd\dvi_miktex27.dll "MiKTeX 2.8\miktex\bin"
1 file(s) copied.

2. I put "dvi_miktex27.dll" in "font searching library"