INTRODUCTION
------------

AutoDia is an open-source, auto-documentation and auto-diagramming 
system allowing you to automatically generate Images, XML, HTML or Dia files.

It has been written to make GNOME Dia and any Diagram Application that 
can use similar XML more powerful. I hope to make Dia more popular than
the commerical equivilents because of the ability to vastly extend it in
this way. It is based on Object Oriented Perl and uses Template Toolkit, 
GraphViz, and INLINE::Java. 

AutoDia's design goals have been good Object Orientation such as
plenty of abstraction, use of inheritance, extensability, robustness
and elegance. Speed and security are not concerns as this application is
designed to generate xml for documents in a batch processing manner, not
an interactive manner, and is a single user application for use from the
console.

AutoDia has been previously known as autodial. The output file is still 
called autodia.out.dia by default. The executable files are now called
autodia.pl and autodia_java.pl, the only difference being an additional
section near the start of the latter to enable INLINE::Java.

STATUS
------

AutoDia currently works on most perl applications, it seems to work on
CGI.pm, itself, various projects of my own and friends. If it doesn't work
on something, please email aaron.trevena@gmail.com the error message and any extra
information or fixes you have.

AutoDia now supports any language that has a handler registered in
AutoDia.pm. Currently this is a reasonable perl handler and a useful C++
handler. Any language can be supported easily by creating a class that
inherits from Handler, as Autodia::Handler::Perl does - the perl handler is
a good example and best documented - the C++ and PHP handlers can also be helpful
when writing a new handler.

I feel that AutoDia does a reasonable job most of the time. There is very little
chance of it damaging any files although generated output may crash applications
if files are corrupted or contain errors.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
---------------------

AutoDia is Copyright (c) 2001 Aaron Trevena <aaron.trevena@gmail.com>
Licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL, see file COPYING).

CONTACT
-------

email me at aaron.trevena@gmail.com, and put "[AutoDia]" in the subject line. 

DOCUMENTATION
-------------

README   : this file.
COPYING  : The GPL License allowing your use and distribution of this code
INSTALL  : installation guide.
UPGRADE  : instructions for upgrading older installations.
CHANGES  : list of changes, new features and bugfixes.
FIXES    : list of bugfixes (in stable releases only).
FAQ      : questions and answers for admins.
DEVELOP  : info for people who want to extend or customize AutoDia
BUGS     : bugs and caveats not yet fixed

CONTRIBUTING
------------
Want to contribute?

- Find bugs and submit detailed bug reports 
- Create/update translations
- Create external handler modules

To contribute to AutoDia mail me at the below address.

--

Aaron Trevena aaron.trevena@gmail.com
Author and maintainer.



