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ConceptDraw Example

This image is a supplement to Matt Neuburg's review of ConceptDraw, published in TidBITS 553.

By creating a small library of objects in ConceptDraw, it's possible to diagram sentences. Quoting Matt:

After a few days of design and experimentation, I ended up with a small library that makes sentence diagrams dead simple to construct. Individual words are "smart" objects whose line length automatically adjusts to the length of the text, and with connection points that stay evenly spaced. Horizontal words are linked by connector objects expressing subject-predicate, object-complement, and so forth. Slanting modifier words are "glued" to horizontal words at connection points through something called a "control point," which is too complicated to explain here. My most brilliant achievement was the right-angle that connects one modifier to another (as in "very humane"); it's a "smart" connector object that keeps its right-angle and its rotation when its connection points are moved.

First Sentence

"It is my very humane endeavour to make,
to some extent, each evil liver a running river
of harmless merriment."
First sentence diagram

Second Sentence

All this ... the reader must enter into before he can
comprehend the unimaginable horror which these
dreams of oriental imagery and mythological tortures
impressed upon me.
Second sentence diagram

You can also download a higher-resolution two-page PDF version of these diagrams.


Published 30-Oct-00 in conjunction with TidBITS 553.