Home

Welcome to the GraphDonkey wiki!

Here you will be able to find all the information you probably need when using GraphDonkey. If it's not in here, you may always leave a question, discussion, bugreport or other issue right here.

Take a deep breath and allow GraphDonkey to do the donkey work for you!

NOTE: Be aware the documentation refers to an update in the near future and therefore will not necessarily apply to your current installation.
Thank you for your patience!

---

Frequently Asked Questions

General FAQ

• How did GraphDonkey come to be?
  For my master dissertation, I required a lot of Finite State Automata to graphically substantiate my thought process and sourcecode. I knew of Graphviz and PlantUML, but I found the whole necessity of having multiple applications open at the same time a hassle. So I did what any computer scientist would do: I started building an app from scratch.

• What was GraphDonkey written in?
  GraphDonkey is a Python application, version 3.6 (and up). It makes use of the Qt binding called PyQt5 in order to create the actual graphical user interface.

• Do you have plans for the future?
  Loads. GraphDonkey will keep on evolving as long as there is interest by me or the community. Take a look at this page to see what I've planned for the future.

Installation and Execution

• How do I install GraphDonkey?
  It depends on what you want to do, but this page will help you achieve your goals!

• Do I need Python/Qt to run GraphDonkey?
  No. Not if you're using Linux (or possibly Mac). It will become available for other operating systems shortly. Of course, you can always clone the repository (with its submodules) and work from there.

• Is it possible to change the set snippets for a plugin?
  Yes and no. Plugin creators are only encouraged to add snippets that can be useful for any user of that language. That being said, you may desire having other values for these snippets, because they make more sense, fit you better or any other reason. To do so, you can open the Snippets window and override the values set by the plugin creator, but you cannot remove them.
  If you know what it is you're doing, you could also edit the plugin file to your liking, but this is generally discouraged.

Plugins and Languages

• I really don't like Graphviz. Can I still use GraphDonkey?
  Of course! While it was originally built to only support Graphviz, it is no longer the case since GraphDonkey Jack-in-a-Box v0.2.0. Graphviz is still bundled by default with the app, but using the flexible plugin system, anything that turns text into (binary) image data can be used instead. Take a look through the user base to see if the plugin you desire is offered somewhere, or read up on how to create your own plugins.

• I have a custom language. Can I use it in GraphDonkey?
  Yes. Absolutely! If it's really custom, you might need to create your own plugin, otherwise, I suggest you'd look right here to see if your plugin exists already.

Bugs

• I came across a bug. What do I do?
  Take a look at this page, or leave it with the community.

• When I open my file in another editor, newlines weren't recorded.
  It may seem this way, but that's not the case. When you have a file open in GraphDonkey, at the bottom on the main window, you can find a menu that has one of the following values. If this value does not correspond to your operating system, this is the issue you're experiencing.

  • Posix (LF): Sets the line separator to classic Posix (Linux and Mac OSX) separators. This corresponds to the line feed (\n) character.
  • Mac OS [Pre-OSX] (CR): Sets the line separators to the old Mac OS way of ending lines, namely the carriage return (\r) character. Note that OSX uses the default Posix line endings!
  • Windows (CRLF): Sets the line separator to a carriage return (\r), followed by a line feed (\n), which is used by Windows systems.