SDIA, a system for SD diagrams typesetting

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Last modification: Jul 11 2005

Home page corrections - thanks to Steve van Keuren, PDF flyer: correction of an example title.

 

Current version: 1.0, Release date: Jun 29 2005

What is SDIA?

You can also look at the PDF flyer which you can print and show to your friends!

SDIA is an easy system for typesetting Square Dance diagrams. After two years of experience with typesetting SD magazine articles, I've discovered I don't need a system with many bells and whistles, I need a system which lets me an easy and quick way to make a diagram and (important!) do last-time corrections (typically done in a hurry at foreign computer with any "friendly" software).

So the system has the following properties:

• the system doesn't depend on any operating system, version, environment...
• the resulting diagrams will not depend on any typesetting system nor the SDIA system itself, they should be widely useful
• the system is easy to use even for non-standard diagrams (with parts rotated by 45 degrees, hexagon diagrams, etc.)

How does it work?

Because of the strong view on independence, I've choose widely spread standard Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) as the diagram format. It is usable directly with many typesetting SW: Adobe Pagemaker, Quark X-Press, TeX (with dvips) and many many others.

The system is not WYSIWYG - it can't be because it should be simple and usable at computers with no special SW. The whole system is an eps template file allowing you to write SDIA diagram without any PostScript knowledge. This is a big advantage - you can use any text editor of your choice (and at any operating system, of course). SDIA comes with rich documentation where you can see how easy to use it is, you don't need to worry about text interface.

On the other hand, some people still would prefer something visual for help, at least when they will start learning SDIA system. This is why I've written SDIA generator. This is an interactive HTML page (with JavaScript and CSS) allowing you to choose a starting formation from pre-defined list and than edit an identification and facing directions of all dancers. You can also start with your SDIA source instead of predefined formation, but there is a limitation that SDIA generator doesn't know anything about SDIA standalone commands, so any group rotations, hexagons and similar advanced techniques aren't allowed in SDIA generator.

It looks great! Where can I get it? What's the prize?

Just click to Download link in the main menu. SDIA system is free for both personal or commercial use. It is distributed under terms of MIT license - see Download page for details.

I've a question, bug report, need for help...

If any of these is related to SDIA system, feel free to contact me:

Milan Vancura <milan@ucw.cz>

Have fun!