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So repulsed by this. Learning custom DSL with opaque semantics that will leave you scratching your head when something goes wrong and tool behaves not like you

So repulsed by this. Learning custom DSL with opaque semantics that will leave you scratching your head when something goes wrong and tool behaves not like you expect. Why people opt into such tools at all?

rixed 5y ago
I cannot disagree. I was a fan of pic in the past for its much superior (IMHO) syntax, but I also envied tikz beautiful results (for it's based on tex rather than troff). I haven't looked at that field for a good while but I'm still genuinely interested. And so I'd like to better understand your comment. It is unclear to me whether you are arguing in favor of using another similar tool using a better syntax, or using an automatic graph layout engine, or a manual general purpose vector drawing tool. How would you recommend one to draw such diagrams?
andrepd 5y ago
Cause it looks absolutely beautiful.
jraph 5y ago
Because those tools are well-known and they allow people to get the result they want. They also can be used for other things and are not specific to a particular kind of drawing. Tikz also allows a tight integration to LaTeX documents that no external tools achieve so easily. The drawing inherits colors and fonts, and bits can be reused across the document and can be shared with other documents too. High learning curve but long term efficiency with quality results. Tikz is not perfect but it has the great characteristic of existing.
lrem 5y ago
Because it's the same tool that you're already writing the paper in.
oerpli 5y ago
TikZ & pgfplots are really nice if you get over the initial learning curve and prefer programmatically defining things rather than drawing by hand. E.g. in my theses all figures (except one in my first thesis) were made with TiKZ with colors and definitions defined in a file that is "imported" during compilation. This allowed me to fine tune various parts (colors, ...) without having to touch each figure again. Also, all the data files are stored as CSV and read/processed by LaTeX. Between handing in my thesis and publishing the short-paper version of it for a conference I could rerun my analysis (to include the most recent data) with a single command and then just recompile the document to have all figures updated. The thesis: https://www.ac.tuwien.ac.at/files/pub/hinteregger_18.pdf https://www.ac.tuwien.ac.at/files/pub/hinteregger_18.pdf And TikZ graphics play somewhat nice with the beamer package. I found it easier to define transitions in technical figures with TikZ/beamer than with PowerPoint or any other tool so far. In a summer internship I worked on the documentation of a project that tried to optimize pillar-placement for skilifts. This was very Math/Physics heavy. With TikZ I could define various parts (e.g. pillar, rope, gondola) as "function" and then create figures that combined these parts. I.e: - place pillars at these locations - connect them with ropes obeying some formula - put gondolas along the rope with some defined distance Important points where marked with coordinates automatically, allowing explanatory nodes (text box with arrow or paths with labels) to be added (with full LaTeX support).

rixed 5y ago

I cannot disagree. I was a fan of pic in the past for its much superior (IMHO) syntax, but I also envied tikz beautiful results (for it's based on tex rather than troff). I haven't looked at that field for a good while but I'm still genuinely interested. And so I'd like to better understand your comment. It is unclear to me whether you are arguing in favor of using another similar tool using a better syntax, or using an automatic graph layout engine, or a manual general purpose vector drawing tool. How would you recommend one to draw such diagrams?

andrepd 5y ago

Cause it looks absolutely beautiful.

jraph 5y ago

Because those tools are well-known and they allow people to get the result they want. They also can be used for other things and are not specific to a particular kind of drawing. Tikz also allows a tight integration to LaTeX documents that no external tools achieve so easily. The drawing inherits colors and fonts, and bits can be reused across the document and can be shared with other documents too. High learning curve but long term efficiency with quality results. Tikz is not perfect but it has the great characteristic of existing.

lrem 5y ago

Because it's the same tool that you're already writing the paper in.

oerpli 5y ago

TikZ & pgfplots are really nice if you get over the initial learning curve and prefer programmatically defining things rather than drawing by hand. E.g. in my theses all figures (except one in my first thesis) were made with TiKZ with colors and definitions defined in a file that is "imported" during compilation. This allowed me to fine tune various parts (colors, ...) without having to touch each figure again. Also, all the data files are stored as CSV and read/processed by LaTeX. Between handing in my thesis and publishing the short-paper version of it for a conference I could rerun my analysis (to include the most recent data) with a single command and then just recompile the document to have all figures updated. The thesis: https://www.ac.tuwien.ac.at/files/pub/hinteregger_18.pdf https://www.ac.tuwien.ac.at/files/pub/hinteregger_18.pdf And TikZ graphics play somewhat nice with the beamer package. I found it easier to define transitions in technical figures with TikZ/beamer than with PowerPoint or any other tool so far. In a summer internship I worked on the documentation of a project that tried to optimize pillar-placement for skilifts. This was very Math/Physics heavy. With TikZ I could define various parts (e.g. pillar, rope, gondola) as "function" and then create figures that combined these parts. I.e: - place pillars at these locations - connect them with ropes obeying some formula - put gondolas along the rope with some defined distance Important points where marked with coordinates automatically, allowing explanatory nodes (text box with arrow or paths with labels) to be added (with full LaTeX support).