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The big question with these is always: how does it layout? Having text to diagram is great until you have moderately complicated diagrams that turn into a mess
by vouwfietsman 2y ago
The big question with these is always: how does it layout? Having text to diagram is great until you have moderately complicated diagrams that turn into a mess using the automated layout engine.
Apparently though, these people know what they're doing and wrote their own, specific for software architecture! Very curious to see if it works well.
- pbronez 2y agoPretty cool that they have multiple layout engines: Layout engines dagre (default): A fast, directed graph layout engine that produces layered/hierarchical layouts. Based on Graphviz's DOT algorithm. ELK: Also a directed graph layout engine. More mature than dagre, better maintained (part-time academic research team working on it), with recent releases. TALA: New layout engine designed specifically for software architecture diagrams. https://d2lang.com/tour/layouts/ https://d2lang.com/tour/layouts/
- ygra 2y agoAutomatic layout can work really well if the diagram kind is known. E.g. you don't have that many arbitrary placement options for a flowchart as opposed to an arbitrary diagram. In those cases of your layout algorithm produces an okay result, most people won't miss options to change certain parts of the automatically-laid out diagram. I think I'm that's a major part why solutions like PlantUML, Mermaid, or D2 often require you to specify a diagram type: to restrict the layout to what makes sense for that diagram. That's a problem that plagues more generic options like Graphviz or (disclaimer: I work on that) yEd where you get the generic layout options and have to adjust them to make sense for your diagram. More flexible, but also more cumbersome, often with the problem that you crave for manual adjustment if the layout is not quite right.