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* Sequence https://plantuml.com/sequence-diagram https://plantuml.com/sequence-diagram * Use case https://plantuml.com/use-case-diagram https://plantuml.com/us

by buro9 6y ago

* Sequence https://plantuml.com/sequence-diagram https://plantuml.com/sequence-diagram * Use case https://plantuml.com/use-case-diagram https://plantuml.com/use-case-diagram * Object https://plantuml.com/object-diagram https://plantuml.com/object-diagram * Activity https://plantuml.com/activity-diagram-legacy https://plantuml.com/activity-diagram-legacy * State https://plantuml.com/state-diagram https://plantuml.com/state-diagram Sequence and Activity are my most used - beyond the ones above logical architecture tends to be a Draw.io created abstraction that ends up in a Google Doc... stuff like this: https://camo.githubusercontent.com/f14ac82eda765733a5f2b5200d78b4ca84b62559d17c9835068423b223588939/68747470733a2f2f63646e2e6a7364656c6976722e6e65742f67682f70726f6d6574686575732f70726f6d65746865757340633334323537643036396336333036383564613335626365663038343633326666643564363230392f646f63756d656e746174696f6e2f696d616765732f6172636869746563747572652e737667 https://camo.githubusercontent.com/f14ac82eda765733a5f2b5200... (not one of mine)

p_l 6y ago
Similar for me, UML2.0 diagrams done using PlantUML. If I had the option, I'd use Enterprise Architect, but it's way too expensive to justify - the benefit would be that it keeps a separate store of "objects" involved in the project which you can refer to from your diagrams.
- etripe 6y ago
  Having used both, Enterprise Architect might be more formally maintainable, but from a CBA (can't be arsed) perspective, PlantUML blows it out of the water. If you use imports in PlantUML, you can define your "objects" or even common actors or events in their own separate pumls, anyway. Just my 100% subjective read.
  - p_l 6y ago
    from what I've seen of an architect working in EA on video call, EA allows to more flexibly define objects - and doesn't put any preconceptions on their use. With PlantUML I'd beware that my common definitions have assumptions about being used in specific contexts. But it's something to test out! :)
    - TeMPOraL 6y ago
      Definitely worth checking out :). At some point, they bit the bullet and included a programming language inside[0]. https://plantuml.com/preprocessing https://plantuml.com/preprocessing It's enough to make it easy to organize common chart elements into libraries, and even create some DSL here and there - the latter being helpful if you're using PlantUML for note taking or in lieu of doodling :). For instance, I got a very good mileage out of "trivial" definitions like: !procedure call($source, $target, $call) $source -> $target: $call activate $target !endprocedure Forming a mini-DSL that let me turn notes like: call("Someone", "SomeoneElse", "FooBar()") asynccall("SomeoneElse", "SomeService", "Run(a=42)") Into a rather large sequence diagram that's also readable as text, and possible to auto-generate to some extent. -- [0] - Which looks like a spawn of an unholy marriage between PHP and C preprocessor... but hey, it's a programming language.
deanclatworthy 6y ago
After spending so much time messing around in draw.io and other crappy tools, I also settled on using PlantUML recently. Easy to commit to VCS, and can easily be shared.
tnzm 6y ago
+1 for PlantUML. Mostly the Sequence diagrams - everything else quickly becomes a mess unless you take extra pains to prevent arrows from turning into a tangled bundle. I don't care about the UML vocabulary, just give me boxes and arrows and labels and a way to draw them semantically instead of some overengineered point-and-grunt GUI. Now, if anyone came up with a tool that checked that the code and diagrams match (no code generation please, the code is the source of truth!), now THAT would be lovely. Just a CLI tool that can be run as part of a CI pipeline, which parses the code into an AST, and checks if entity A still has properties A.B and A.C, and methods A.D and A.E, and that A.D still contains a call to function F - and colors the arrows BRIGHT RED if there's a mismatch. That would be enough for committing a mental map of a codebase to documentation.
- billfruit 6y ago
  PlantUML is great but it renders Statecharts in a non-obvious manner.
flower-giraffe 6y ago
draw.io with embedded plantuml saved as pdf with editable source embedded is a fantastic free alternative to Visio. Plantuml is excellent for some use cases, but not all. They use kroki to enable embedded plantuml diagrams, you can save the whole thing as PDF than includes the source and can be edited in draw.io
ghosty141 6y ago
I only used the Sequence diagrams because they are super useful and the syntax is very intuitive. PlantUML is great
TeMPOraL 6y ago
Yup, mostly the same set of PlantUML diagrams for me, plus: * Timing https://plantuml.com/timing-diagram https://plantuml.com/timing-diagram - used it once or twice. I mostly use PlantUML for myself, in lieu of drawing diagrams by hand (or pointing device). My main use cases are a) when I'm toying with some higher-level design in my head and want to "see it" in picture form, and b) when making notes about the structure of code as I explore gnarly areas of a legacy codebase. In that latter case, I've discovered that my "PlantUML notes" follow the code structure close enough that I should be able to coax my editor into generating these for me, semi-interactively. I might get around to doing that at some point. Quite honestly, I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone doing a generalized "Language Server -> PlantUML" tool for asking questions about the codebase and getting responses in graphical form. As I mentioned yesterday[0], I find myself in need of being able to answer questions like "How does the code get from here to there?", and at least some language servers should have enough information to be able to give that answer[1]. That time when I spent a whole day building a sequence diagram by hand, to document how a certain subsystem is created and used in the very heart of the application, paid for itself very quickly - but I'd much prefer if it was a matter of couple minutes of tuning an invocation like: querypuml --type=fromto --from=Foo.cpp:123 --to=Bar.cpp:456 \ --omit"::utils::*" --omit "SomeClass" \ --omit-files "module/irrelevant/*" -o journey.puml It would make it much easier to refresh the diagram the next time I need it for reference. -- [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26937454 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26937454 [1] - If a language server supports identifying function calls and "jump to definition" (xref), it already has a lazy graph of the code structure, so it's a matter of running a path finding algorithm on it. Of course this can never be perfect (see also: halting problem), but I think a minimum-effort solution would cover 80% of cases, and most of the rest could be covered if attached to a debugger that records traces.

by buro9 6y ago

p_l 6y ago

Similar for me, UML2.0 diagrams done using PlantUML. If I had the option, I'd use Enterprise Architect, but it's way too expensive to justify - the benefit would be that it keeps a separate store of "objects" involved in the project which you can refer to from your diagrams.

etripe 6y ago
Having used both, Enterprise Architect might be more formally maintainable, but from a CBA (can't be arsed) perspective, PlantUML blows it out of the water. If you use imports in PlantUML, you can define your "objects" or even common actors or events in their own separate pumls, anyway. Just my 100% subjective read.
- p_l 6y ago
  from what I've seen of an architect working in EA on video call, EA allows to more flexibly define objects - and doesn't put any preconceptions on their use. With PlantUML I'd beware that my common definitions have assumptions about being used in specific contexts. But it's something to test out! :)
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Definitely worth checking out :). At some point, they bit the bullet and included a programming language inside[0]. https://plantuml.com/preprocessing https://plantuml.com/preprocessing It's enough to make it easy to organize common chart elements into libraries, and even create some DSL here and there - the latter being helpful if you're using PlantUML for note taking or in lieu of doodling :). For instance, I got a very good mileage out of "trivial" definitions like: !procedure call($source, $target, $call) $source -> $target: $call activate $target !endprocedure Forming a mini-DSL that let me turn notes like: call("Someone", "SomeoneElse", "FooBar()") asynccall("SomeoneElse", "SomeService", "Run(a=42)") Into a rather large sequence diagram that's also readable as text, and possible to auto-generate to some extent. -- [0] - Which looks like a spawn of an unholy marriage between PHP and C preprocessor... but hey, it's a programming language.

deanclatworthy 6y ago

After spending so much time messing around in draw.io and other crappy tools, I also settled on using PlantUML recently. Easy to commit to VCS, and can easily be shared.

tnzm 6y ago

+1 for PlantUML. Mostly the Sequence diagrams - everything else quickly becomes a mess unless you take extra pains to prevent arrows from turning into a tangled bundle. I don't care about the UML vocabulary, just give me boxes and arrows and labels and a way to draw them semantically instead of some overengineered point-and-grunt GUI. Now, if anyone came up with a tool that checked that the code and diagrams match (no code generation please, the code is the source of truth!), now THAT would be lovely. Just a CLI tool that can be run as part of a CI pipeline, which parses the code into an AST, and checks if entity A still has properties A.B and A.C, and methods A.D and A.E, and that A.D still contains a call to function F - and colors the arrows BRIGHT RED if there's a mismatch. That would be enough for committing a mental map of a codebase to documentation.

billfruit 6y ago
PlantUML is great but it renders Statecharts in a non-obvious manner.

flower-giraffe 6y ago

draw.io with embedded plantuml saved as pdf with editable source embedded is a fantastic free alternative to Visio. Plantuml is excellent for some use cases, but not all. They use kroki to enable embedded plantuml diagrams, you can save the whole thing as PDF than includes the source and can be edited in draw.io

ghosty141 6y ago

I only used the Sequence diagrams because they are super useful and the syntax is very intuitive. PlantUML is great

TeMPOraL 6y ago

Yup, mostly the same set of PlantUML diagrams for me, plus: * Timing https://plantuml.com/timing-diagram https://plantuml.com/timing-diagram - used it once or twice. I mostly use PlantUML for myself, in lieu of drawing diagrams by hand (or pointing device). My main use cases are a) when I'm toying with some higher-level design in my head and want to "see it" in picture form, and b) when making notes about the structure of code as I explore gnarly areas of a legacy codebase. In that latter case, I've discovered that my "PlantUML notes" follow the code structure close enough that I should be able to coax my editor into generating these for me, semi-interactively. I might get around to doing that at some point. Quite honestly, I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone doing a generalized "Language Server -> PlantUML" tool for asking questions about the codebase and getting responses in graphical form. As I mentioned yesterday[0], I find myself in need of being able to answer questions like "How does the code get from here to there?", and at least some language servers should have enough information to be able to give that answer[1]. That time when I spent a whole day building a sequence diagram by hand, to document how a certain subsystem is created and used in the very heart of the application, paid for itself very quickly - but I'd much prefer if it was a matter of couple minutes of tuning an invocation like: querypuml --type=fromto --from=Foo.cpp:123 --to=Bar.cpp:456 \ --omit"::utils::*" --omit "SomeClass" \ --omit-files "module/irrelevant/*" -o journey.puml It would make it much easier to refresh the diagram the next time I need it for reference. -- [0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26937454 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26937454 [1] - If a language server supports identifying function calls and "jump to definition" (xref), it already has a lazy graph of the code structure, so it's a matter of running a path finding algorithm on it. Of course this can never be perfect (see also: halting problem), but I think a minimum-effort solution would cover 80% of cases, and most of the rest could be covered if attached to a debugger that records traces.