Re: Accessible Entity Relationship and Data Flow Diagrams
- From: Bill Cox <waywardgeek@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:41:55 -0400
I'm not blind, but I use a free program for most of my C coding which
generates C data structures from a C-like database description text
file. It also can generate entity-relationship diagrams
automatically. I've attached the text input, and the diagram it
generates. I don't have any answer for flow diagrams. The program is
DataDraw, at:
datadraw.sourceforge.net
To generate the diagram, I used vim to create the Example.dd file.
The dataview tool generates a postscript file, and I used ps2pdf to
create a PDF file.
This tool isn't for creating SQL databases, and it has different
features than SQL entity-relationship diagram editors. For example,
it doesn't have any way to describe mutually exclusive relationships.
However, it's pretty close.
For about 15 years, programmers I worked with used a graphical
entity-relationship diagram editor to create these database
descriptions. A couple years ago, I rewrote the whole tool to use
text-entry for the description and the tool to generate the diagrams
automatically. Our productivity wasn't much different either way, but
it's better to edit text, and then generate the diagrams. That way,
you can at least have some control over how the diagrams look. I
found that it was impossible to get people to put any time into making
their diagrams readable, so the human-generated ones were pretty bad.
It also took more time to edit the diagrams than a text file.
Of course, now most programmers I work with don't bother with the
diagrams at all. I still do, but I'm very visual. Whenever I do a
new project, I like to describe the data structures in a text file,
and then print out the entity-relationship diagram. I keep it on my
desk while writing the new project. I've attached DataDraw's own
entity-relationship diagram and database description text file as a
more complex example. The entity-relationship diagram can be read
like a map, showing sighted users how to most easily get from one
place in the database to another.
Bill
On Sun, Sep 13, 2009 at 12:15 AM, Jim Bauer <holdsworthfan@xxxxxx> wrote:
> The following is Doug Lee's input.
>
> ----------
> I took a software engineering course in about 1989 that covered the
> same sequence of steps and documents. I did not have an accessible
> shareable format or generator to use, so I sort of conjured up my own
> Braille representations for things. In particular I remember trying
> to create a reasonable Braille format for a DFD. In the end it was
> sort of hodge-podge, but good enough for my team project--which,
> perhaps surprisingly, was to write an APL interpreter.
>
> But in 1992 I took a computer music course and developed another
> method of handling diagrammatic material, which was to scratch out (or
> have readers scratch out) the non-text portions of a figure on thick
> paper (Braille paper was good enough) with a very sharp object, like a
> safety pin or needle (a slate stylus is not sharp enough for this).
> The scratches came out as tactily discernable lines on the surface of
> the page. I would then roll the page into a Brailler and Braille the
> text portions of the figure in the appropriate places.
>
> Obviously this is not as interactive as you're looking for, but I
> offer it in case it is directly useful as a method, or indirectly as
> the source of better ideas.
>
> I'll send this to others in my office in case they have further input.
>
> --
> Doug Lee, Senior Accessibility Programmer
> SSB BART Group - Accessibility-on-Demand
> mailto:doug.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
> "While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done,
> it was done." --Helen Keller
>
> __________
> View the list's information and change your settings at
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>
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