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1. how does this add value over mermaid? I like how it looks and works, but is there any real reason to switch over. 2. in my opinion, what all these tools are

1. how does this add value over mermaid? I like how it looks and works, but is there any real reason to switch over. 2. in my opinion, what all these tools are missing is the ability to add a manual „corrective“ layer, meaning to be able to adjust the automatically created output by moving and resizing boxes by a certain x/y amount.

alixanderwang 1y ago
1. It depends on what you value =). For some, those 2 you mentioned are enough. For others, it can be something like the our CLI doesn't require a chromium browser to render SVGs (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31275754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31275754). It doesn't cover every difference, but we made a little comparison site if it helps: https://text-to-diagram.com https://text-to-diagram.com 2. I'm not trying to advertise our paid product in this post about the open source product, but since you mentioned it, we make an IDE that adds the ability to lock in positions and dimensions: https://docs.terrastruct.com/tour/freehand https://docs.terrastruct.com/tour/freehand
- cpmsmith 1y ago
  By the way, it looks like the MermaidJS implementation of the WiiU example is broken due to subgraphs not creating namespaces. That is, the `rom` node in the `amd` subgraph is overwriting the one in the `ibm` subgraph.
  - alixanderwang 1y ago
    Thank you, made an issue: https://github.com/terrastruct/text-to-diagram-site/issues/63 https://github.com/terrastruct/text-to-diagram-site/issues/6...
Myrmornis 1y ago
It's a diagramming tool > I like how it looks and works Those are "real reasons".
arkh 1y ago
> 2. in my opinion, what all these tools are missing is the ability to add a manual „corrective“ layer, meaning to be able to adjust the automatically created output by moving and resizing boxes by a certain x/y amount. Something like Struturizr? https://structurizr.com/ https://structurizr.com/
bigfishrunning 1y ago
I like that it seems to support inline latex formulas, which seems like a great feature
dragonwriter 1y ago
> how does this add value over mermaid? As a longtime Mermaid user that just started trying out D2 recently: * D2's syntax is much less cumbersome to write and, from the features provided, I would expect maintain because of better abstractions. * While D2 supports fewer canned diagram types out-of-the-box (a big advantage for Mermaid), D2 has better composition support (via layers and scenarios, particularly) than Mermaid, which is a killer feature for lots of use cases. If I need a Sankey diagram, obviously, Mermaid wins; if I want to do a leveled DFD, while I could in theory use either, D2 is much better. * D2 has more freedom for mixing elements, because instead of being oriented around diagram types, it uses some special shapes within what amounts to a single universal diagram type ("sequence diagrams" work a bit like a diagram type, but the diagram itself is a shape that can be used like other shapes, and tables [as used in ERDs] and classes [as used in UML class diagrams] are also just shapes, not a construct available in particular diagram types.) > in my opinion, what all these tools are missing is the ability to add a manual „corrective“ layer, meaning to be able to adjust the automatically created output by moving and resizing boxes by a certain x/y amount. Technically, I think you can do that in Mermaid (by attaching CSS classes to the nodes that do the actual nudging) if you really want to.

alixanderwang 1y ago

1. It depends on what you value =). For some, those 2 you mentioned are enough. For others, it can be something like the our CLI doesn't require a chromium browser to render SVGs (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31275754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31275754). It doesn't cover every difference, but we made a little comparison site if it helps: https://text-to-diagram.com https://text-to-diagram.com 2. I'm not trying to advertise our paid product in this post about the open source product, but since you mentioned it, we make an IDE that adds the ability to lock in positions and dimensions: https://docs.terrastruct.com/tour/freehand https://docs.terrastruct.com/tour/freehand

cpmsmith 1y ago
By the way, it looks like the MermaidJS implementation of the WiiU example is broken due to subgraphs not creating namespaces. That is, the `rom` node in the `amd` subgraph is overwriting the one in the `ibm` subgraph.
- alixanderwang 1y ago
  Thank you, made an issue: https://github.com/terrastruct/text-to-diagram-site/issues/63 https://github.com/terrastruct/text-to-diagram-site/issues/6...

Myrmornis 1y ago

It's a diagramming tool > I like how it looks and works Those are "real reasons".

arkh 1y ago

> 2. in my opinion, what all these tools are missing is the ability to add a manual „corrective“ layer, meaning to be able to adjust the automatically created output by moving and resizing boxes by a certain x/y amount. Something like Struturizr? https://structurizr.com/ https://structurizr.com/

bigfishrunning 1y ago

I like that it seems to support inline latex formulas, which seems like a great feature

dragonwriter 1y ago

> how does this add value over mermaid? As a longtime Mermaid user that just started trying out D2 recently: * D2's syntax is much less cumbersome to write and, from the features provided, I would expect maintain because of better abstractions. * While D2 supports fewer canned diagram types out-of-the-box (a big advantage for Mermaid), D2 has better composition support (via layers and scenarios, particularly) than Mermaid, which is a killer feature for lots of use cases. If I need a Sankey diagram, obviously, Mermaid wins; if I want to do a leveled DFD, while I could in theory use either, D2 is much better. * D2 has more freedom for mixing elements, because instead of being oriented around diagram types, it uses some special shapes within what amounts to a single universal diagram type ("sequence diagrams" work a bit like a diagram type, but the diagram itself is a shape that can be used like other shapes, and tables [as used in ERDs] and classes [as used in UML class diagrams] are also just shapes, not a construct available in particular diagram types.) > in my opinion, what all these tools are missing is the ability to add a manual „corrective“ layer, meaning to be able to adjust the automatically created output by moving and resizing boxes by a certain x/y amount. Technically, I think you can do that in Mermaid (by attaching CSS classes to the nodes that do the actual nudging) if you really want to.