4 ms·

I've been using PlantUML and Mermaid for my own diagrams. Mermaid is quite basic; it lacks functionalities that for me were necessary; for example, direct conn

I've been using PlantUML and Mermaid for my own diagrams. Mermaid is quite basic; it lacks functionalities that for me were necessary; for example, direct connection between attributes of different classes. All in all, PlantUML seems superior to Mermaid, at no cost (both languages are relatively simple to learn). Mermaid is supported by Github, which may be a necessary requirement for some. On the other hand, among the many functionalities, PlantUML's JSON is unusually good looking out of the box, and if one required the diagram it outputs, it's a great feature, because it requires no syntax knowledge. Both PlantUML and Mermaid mostly produce (Mermaid more) ugly-looking diagrams (dated, to say the least). In PlantUML, this problem is compounded by the explicit lack of layout, by design. Other warts: both (PlantUML and Mermaid) languages have limited comment support - they are only supported in specific locations of the diagram declarations. D2 could be a very welcome "next gen" diagramming language. However, the devil is in the details - text-to-diagram.com show a very basic functionality, so one must carefully check the requirements. Regarding text-to-diagram.com: - there's a mistake - PlantUML does support rich text (although "rich" is a fuzzy definition) - class diagrams are an important use case, which is currently missing EDIT: clarification about the comment limitations.

alixanderwang 4y ago
do you have an example of the rich text for PlantUML? happy to correct i've added a TODO for the class diagrams, will be included this week. https://github.com/terrastruct/text-to-diagram-site/issues/20 https://github.com/terrastruct/text-to-diagram-site/issues/2... AFAIK they all have comments (see the "Chess" example). what is the limitation of comments you're referring to?
- pizza234 4y ago
  This is a styling example in PlantUML: class TestClass { ""Monospaced"" <color:green>Colored } See here: https://plantuml.com/creole https://plantuml.com/creole. Regarding the comments, here's a PlantUML example: class TestClass { ""Monospaced"" ' comment not supported; displayed <color:green>Colored } class TestClass2 { ' comment supported Type varname ' comment not supported; displayed } ' comment supported foo::bar --> baz ' comment not supported; breaks diagram (!)
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
Veuxdo 4y ago
Have you taken a look at Ilograph [0]? It's also a "next gen" diagrams-as-code alternative that goes in a different direction: interactive, model-based, and multi-perspective. It also has in an IDE for autocomplete. [0] https://app.ilograph.com/demo.ilograph.Ilograph https://app.ilograph.com/demo.ilograph.Ilograph
- alixanderwang 4y ago
  feel free to submit a PR to make comparisons against tools on text-to-diagram.com, happy to include you Billy!
- michael_j_ward 4y ago
  Is Ilograph open source?
  - vladsanchez 4y ago
    It's not!
  - Veuxdo 4y ago
    Only a small part of it: the standard diagramming libraries (or, presently, library): https://github.com/billy-pilger/ilograph-standard-libraries https://github.com/billy-pilger/ilograph-standard-libraries
    - afandian 4y ago
      It looks amazing for exploring arbitrary graphs. Do you have plans to open any part of the diagramming engine?
- vladsanchez 4y ago
  Ilograph is what all these diagram-as-code tools should aspire to. It's ability to contextualize is unlike anything I've seen.
  - philsnow 4y ago
wongarsu 4y ago
As they say, the best diagram language is the one your tool supports; and by that metric Mermaid and graphviz seem to be winning (depending on which ecosystem you are in, Mermaid seems to have the edge in the Markdown world, graphviz everywhere else). D2 looks like a nice upgrade, but to be as useful as e.g. Mermaid a bunch of plugins will need to be written.
- alixanderwang 4y ago
  yup agreed. we prioritized IDE plugins, and have a native plugin system, recognizing the importance of ecosystem. e.g. a proof of concept plugin to make diagrams look hand-drawn: https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/pull/91 https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/pull/91
  - xcdzvyn 4y ago
    Any chance of getting an Obsidian plugin?
    - alixanderwang 4y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33706852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33706852

alixanderwang 4y ago

do you have an example of the rich text for PlantUML? happy to correct i've added a TODO for the class diagrams, will be included this week. https://github.com/terrastruct/text-to-diagram-site/issues/20 https://github.com/terrastruct/text-to-diagram-site/issues/2... AFAIK they all have comments (see the "Chess" example). what is the limitation of comments you're referring to?

pizza234 4y ago
This is a styling example in PlantUML: class TestClass { ""Monospaced"" <color:green>Colored } See here: https://plantuml.com/creole https://plantuml.com/creole. Regarding the comments, here's a PlantUML example: class TestClass { ""Monospaced"" ' comment not supported; displayed <color:green>Colored } class TestClass2 { ' comment supported Type varname ' comment not supported; displayed } ' comment supported foo::bar --> baz ' comment not supported; breaks diagram (!)
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

Veuxdo 4y ago

Have you taken a look at Ilograph [0]? It's also a "next gen" diagrams-as-code alternative that goes in a different direction: interactive, model-based, and multi-perspective. It also has in an IDE for autocomplete. [0] https://app.ilograph.com/demo.ilograph.Ilograph https://app.ilograph.com/demo.ilograph.Ilograph

alixanderwang 4y ago
feel free to submit a PR to make comparisons against tools on text-to-diagram.com, happy to include you Billy!
michael_j_ward 4y ago
Is Ilograph open source?
- vladsanchez 4y ago
  It's not!
- Veuxdo 4y ago
  Only a small part of it: the standard diagramming libraries (or, presently, library): https://github.com/billy-pilger/ilograph-standard-libraries https://github.com/billy-pilger/ilograph-standard-libraries
  - afandian 4y ago
    It looks amazing for exploring arbitrary graphs. Do you have plans to open any part of the diagramming engine?
vladsanchez 4y ago
Ilograph is what all these diagram-as-code tools should aspire to. It's ability to contextualize is unlike anything I've seen.
- philsnow 4y ago

wongarsu 4y ago

As they say, the best diagram language is the one your tool supports; and by that metric Mermaid and graphviz seem to be winning (depending on which ecosystem you are in, Mermaid seems to have the edge in the Markdown world, graphviz everywhere else). D2 looks like a nice upgrade, but to be as useful as e.g. Mermaid a bunch of plugins will need to be written.

alixanderwang 4y ago
yup agreed. we prioritized IDE plugins, and have a native plugin system, recognizing the importance of ecosystem. e.g. a proof of concept plugin to make diagrams look hand-drawn: https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/pull/91 https://github.com/terrastruct/d2/pull/91
- xcdzvyn 4y ago
  Any chance of getting an Obsidian plugin?
  - alixanderwang 4y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33706852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33706852