Slightly OT - drawing

[Jack Russell]

I am writing a simple program to draw diagrams. I plan to store the
coordinates of each item (initially all straight lines) in a file so
that I can recreate and edit the drawing later. I assume there are
already file structures defined for such things. Can anyone point me at
some please?

Thanks

[Family Tree Mike]

You might consider whether you plan on being interoperable with other
programs with similar intent. For example, if you intend on drawing
buildings, some form of CAD file format may exist that is easy to create.
If your intent is just internally for yourself, unless the user is expected
to edit the files outside your program, I would stick with serialized
objects.

"Jack Russell" <ja***@norubbish.tpg.com.auwrote in message
news:Ot**************@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...

>I am writing a simple program to draw diagrams. I plan to store the
coordinates of each item (initially all straight lines) in a file so that I
can recreate and edit the drawing later. I assume there are already file
structures defined for such things. Can anyone point me at some please?

Thanks

[Armin Zingler]

"Jack Russell" <ja***@norubbish.tpg.com.auschrieb

I am writing a simple program to draw diagrams. I plan to store the
coordinates of each item (initially all straight lines) in a file so
that I can recreate and edit the drawing later. I assume there are
already file structures defined for such things. Can anyone point me
at some please?

XML is often used. Binary format works, too. I prefer latter because of less
unnecessary overhead (however not human readable (why does it have to be?)).
Most probably prefer the former because they don't know why PCs have to be
so fast nowadays. SCNR. (no start for a discusssion please)

Basics you probably already know:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/k3352a4t.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ws92aysc.aspx

XML:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2bcctyt8.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb384833.aspx
And, you know, the bigger the files the closer a database.
Armin