4 ms·

Create and share diagrams by writing sentences

79 points by ssn 17y ago

d4nt 17y ago
That is quite cool, but I found I had to give a bit too much though to plural/singular in order to get a diagram that made sense. If it could understand that "templates" and "template" are the same thing it would make a big impact on usability.
- bockris 17y ago
  The exact same thing happened to me. I wish that you could edit a sentence rather than delete and re-add it with corrections.
ShabbyDoo 17y ago
http://www.websequencediagrams.com/ http://www.websequencediagrams.com/
- binarycheese 17y ago
  you beat me to it
- karanbhangui 17y ago
  I'm currently using this tool for a web application setup. It's use is invaluable.
coliveira 17y ago
Really cool
bsaunder 17y ago
Yup, I think the world of visual programming is approaching... I know we've tried and failed before, but all the new people trying again don't know that. sssh Pretty cool stuff.
- tmd 17y ago
  This is actually closer to the reverse of visual programming -- we create diagrams by providing their textual representation. I really like the idea. Every time I need to deal with some UML or diagram application I have an impression that generating diagrams from skeleton source code would be easier than the other way round. Tools like the built-in Visual Studio modeler, which updates the diagrams in real time, are also a step in good direction.
keyist 17y ago
May be fun to play with, but rather limited, as tools based on natural language tend to be. For more flexible diagram work try the Artist-mode/ditaa combination (http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/ArtistMode http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/ArtistMode, http://ditaa.sourceforge.net http://ditaa.sourceforge.net) Or course once you get really serious you'd use Graphviz http://www.graphviz.org http://www.graphviz.org Diagrams in text = version controlled = win!
- almost 17y ago
  artist-mode to create maybe, but then how do you edit? Concepts such as "make this box bigger" or even "move this box over here" get kind of difficult when it's all just pixels or all just ascii chars. Graphviz is pretty cool though. But saying that I tend to have to spend too much time tweaking it just so that all the labels don't overlap.
- bockris 17y ago
  It's just a guess but I'll bet it's using Graphviz under the covers. I wrote something similar to create ERD's on the fly from a schema.
almost 17y ago
Would be great if you could export as Graphviz dot files (which it looks like it's using behind the scenes). That way it would be useful sketching out the basics but you wouldn't have to throw all that away once you needed more features.
- bockris 17y ago
  I tend to generate my dot file from separate data anyway. To me, this lowers the barrier on getting something out there quickly. I can think of a lot of simple improvements to what is there now.
ssn 17y ago
Also worth seeing: http://yuml.me http://yuml.me
tamersalama 17y ago
Anyone knows how the natural language detection work (especially that fast). Resources?
- bockris 17y ago
  It doesn't understand what you are typing. It probably just splits on words and tries to match what it has seen before. I'll bet if you abuse it you can break it. Edit: It seems to do a split on spaces and then takes the first word and the last word as the nodes and labels the edge with what is in the middle. http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dkCDRHJUJA7 http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dkCDRHJUJA7
  - bockris 17y ago
    note: The diagrams are not locked in any way so my carefully crafted test is no longer there. it was something along the lines of a b c a c d d ef g
fnid 17y ago
Anyone know of anything like this for data models? I'd love to build something like: Customers have a name, address, and phone customers have many orders orders have many items items have a name, description and price Something like that.
- bockris 17y ago
  If you lock your vocabulary down e.g. entity 'have a' comma-sep-attr-list entity 'have many' referenced-entity etc and create dot files for Graphviz this would be very easy.
  - fnid 17y ago
    That's an excellent program. I downloaded it per your suggestion, but I really wanted a web based version. Thank you though, I will find many uses for this program as well.
    - wooby 17y ago
      Dot itself is also a command line tool, so it's easy to make documents and presentations with TeX that have text-format diagrams in the dot language. You can also do things like generate call graphs for programs, or parse log files into sequence diagrams by parsing input somehow and generating dot files.
- ssn 17y ago
  Maybe http://yuml.me http://yuml.me will help you.
  - fnid 17y ago
    yuml.me is exactly what I'm looking for. Very nice. Thank you.
- diN0bot 17y ago
  i have a script that reads django models.py files and constructs OmniGraffle object models. hmm...could be neat to go the other way since i usually make the diagrams first...i wrote the script because once the main idea is figured out then i'll make lots of iterative changes in the code and not want to update the diagram so carefully.. i'm still working out the details. but i'll post here as soon as that's all good :-) not sure if anyone else is interested, i guess.
chanux2 17y ago
it's like graphviz (http://www.graphviz.org http://www.graphviz.org) with natural language
- sho 17y ago
  I think it is obviously graphviz with a smart front end.
phr 17y ago
Very cool. Here's one for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dvvAjKyVhCs http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dvvAjKyVhCs
ivankirigin 17y ago
I think I just won the game: http://diagrammr.com/png?key=dVDri1xYrbp http://diagrammr.com/png?key=dVDri1xYrbp
fburnaby 17y ago
"I ate a popsicle, which was melting into a pot of cold soda." It thought I was melting!
JayNeely 17y ago
It maxed out at 18 sentences for me, but I didn't notice it was just overwriting the last one until after I had typed another 25 or so. D'oh. Was using it to map out and notate the people I'm following on twitter: http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dXUsqPIKKKP http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dXUsqPIKKKP
sh1mmer 17y ago
You should note the security model here sucks. You embed your diagram with the same unique Id that is used to edit it. However, editing isn't authenticated. So anyone who can see your diagram can figure out the edit page and alter it.
udfalkso 17y ago
While very neat, I'm not sure entering these with text is the easiest approach. As soon as the automation fails to pick the right flow, you're basically stuck. A combination of text input and graphical manipulation might work better. For a nice graphical approach, I've found http://lucidchart.com http://lucidchart.com to be excellent.
- zmimon 17y ago
  Lucidchart is awesome. Google would do well to make an acquisition there - I really feel the pain of not having any diagramming integrated with google docs.
  - lucidchart 17y ago
    I agree. But then, I might be a little biased. Ben Dilts Founder, LucidChart
vaporstun 17y ago
Very cool, one problem I found is that you can't have 2 word objects. Example: Router connects to Web Server It uses Router and Server as the objects with "connects to Web" as the connection. Putting the 2 word object (Web Server) in quotes confused it: Example: Router connects to "Web Server" It should be possible to have a 2 word object with some kind of escape character to create an object with more than one word without having it think you are supplying it with part of a connection.

79 points by ssn 17y ago

d4nt 17y ago

That is quite cool, but I found I had to give a bit too much though to plural/singular in order to get a diagram that made sense. If it could understand that "templates" and "template" are the same thing it would make a big impact on usability.

bockris 17y ago
The exact same thing happened to me. I wish that you could edit a sentence rather than delete and re-add it with corrections.

ShabbyDoo 17y ago

http://www.websequencediagrams.com/ http://www.websequencediagrams.com/

binarycheese 17y ago
you beat me to it
karanbhangui 17y ago
I'm currently using this tool for a web application setup. It's use is invaluable.

coliveira 17y ago

Really cool

bsaunder 17y ago

Yup, I think the world of visual programming is approaching... I know we've tried and failed before, but all the new people trying again don't know that. sssh Pretty cool stuff.

tmd 17y ago
This is actually closer to the reverse of visual programming -- we create diagrams by providing their textual representation. I really like the idea. Every time I need to deal with some UML or diagram application I have an impression that generating diagrams from skeleton source code would be easier than the other way round. Tools like the built-in Visual Studio modeler, which updates the diagrams in real time, are also a step in good direction.

keyist 17y ago

May be fun to play with, but rather limited, as tools based on natural language tend to be. For more flexible diagram work try the Artist-mode/ditaa combination (http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/ArtistMode http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/ArtistMode, http://ditaa.sourceforge.net http://ditaa.sourceforge.net) Or course once you get really serious you'd use Graphviz http://www.graphviz.org http://www.graphviz.org Diagrams in text = version controlled = win!

almost 17y ago
artist-mode to create maybe, but then how do you edit? Concepts such as "make this box bigger" or even "move this box over here" get kind of difficult when it's all just pixels or all just ascii chars. Graphviz is pretty cool though. But saying that I tend to have to spend too much time tweaking it just so that all the labels don't overlap.
bockris 17y ago
It's just a guess but I'll bet it's using Graphviz under the covers. I wrote something similar to create ERD's on the fly from a schema.

almost 17y ago

Would be great if you could export as Graphviz dot files (which it looks like it's using behind the scenes). That way it would be useful sketching out the basics but you wouldn't have to throw all that away once you needed more features.

bockris 17y ago
I tend to generate my dot file from separate data anyway. To me, this lowers the barrier on getting something out there quickly. I can think of a lot of simple improvements to what is there now.

ssn 17y ago

Also worth seeing: http://yuml.me http://yuml.me

tamersalama 17y ago

Anyone knows how the natural language detection work (especially that fast). Resources?

bockris 17y ago
It doesn't understand what you are typing. It probably just splits on words and tries to match what it has seen before. I'll bet if you abuse it you can break it. Edit: It seems to do a split on spaces and then takes the first word and the last word as the nodes and labels the edge with what is in the middle. http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dkCDRHJUJA7 http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dkCDRHJUJA7
- bockris 17y ago
  note: The diagrams are not locked in any way so my carefully crafted test is no longer there. it was something along the lines of a b c a c d d ef g

fnid 17y ago

Anyone know of anything like this for data models? I'd love to build something like: Customers have a name, address, and phone customers have many orders orders have many items items have a name, description and price Something like that.

bockris 17y ago
If you lock your vocabulary down e.g. entity 'have a' comma-sep-attr-list entity 'have many' referenced-entity etc and create dot files for Graphviz this would be very easy.
- fnid 17y ago
  That's an excellent program. I downloaded it per your suggestion, but I really wanted a web based version. Thank you though, I will find many uses for this program as well.
  - wooby 17y ago
    Dot itself is also a command line tool, so it's easy to make documents and presentations with TeX that have text-format diagrams in the dot language. You can also do things like generate call graphs for programs, or parse log files into sequence diagrams by parsing input somehow and generating dot files.
ssn 17y ago
Maybe http://yuml.me http://yuml.me will help you.
- fnid 17y ago
  yuml.me is exactly what I'm looking for. Very nice. Thank you.
diN0bot 17y ago
i have a script that reads django models.py files and constructs OmniGraffle object models. hmm...could be neat to go the other way since i usually make the diagrams first...i wrote the script because once the main idea is figured out then i'll make lots of iterative changes in the code and not want to update the diagram so carefully.. i'm still working out the details. but i'll post here as soon as that's all good :-) not sure if anyone else is interested, i guess.

chanux2 17y ago

it's like graphviz (http://www.graphviz.org http://www.graphviz.org) with natural language

sho 17y ago
I think it is obviously graphviz with a smart front end.

phr 17y ago

Very cool. Here's one for Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dvvAjKyVhCs http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dvvAjKyVhCs

ivankirigin 17y ago

I think I just won the game: http://diagrammr.com/png?key=dVDri1xYrbp http://diagrammr.com/png?key=dVDri1xYrbp

fburnaby 17y ago

"I ate a popsicle, which was melting into a pot of cold soda." It thought I was melting!

JayNeely 17y ago

It maxed out at 18 sentences for me, but I didn't notice it was just overwriting the last one until after I had typed another 25 or so. D'oh. Was using it to map out and notate the people I'm following on twitter: http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dXUsqPIKKKP http://diagrammr.com/edit?key=dXUsqPIKKKP

sh1mmer 17y ago

You should note the security model here sucks. You embed your diagram with the same unique Id that is used to edit it. However, editing isn't authenticated. So anyone who can see your diagram can figure out the edit page and alter it.

udfalkso 17y ago

While very neat, I'm not sure entering these with text is the easiest approach. As soon as the automation fails to pick the right flow, you're basically stuck. A combination of text input and graphical manipulation might work better. For a nice graphical approach, I've found http://lucidchart.com http://lucidchart.com to be excellent.

zmimon 17y ago
Lucidchart is awesome. Google would do well to make an acquisition there - I really feel the pain of not having any diagramming integrated with google docs.
- lucidchart 17y ago
  I agree. But then, I might be a little biased. Ben Dilts Founder, LucidChart

vaporstun 17y ago

Very cool, one problem I found is that you can't have 2 word objects. Example: Router connects to Web Server It uses Router and Server as the objects with "connects to Web" as the connection. Putting the 2 word object (Web Server) in quotes confused it: Example: Router connects to "Web Server" It should be possible to have a 2 word object with some kind of escape character to create an object with more than one word without having it think you are supplying it with part of a connection.