Re:Generation of diagrams and flowcharts from text in a simi...
by TeMPOraL on Monday June 15, 2020 @06:10PM
(#23533651)
> I don't have a concise term for the (common) source of that dissatisfaction
Declarativeness + fragility. That's how I refer to similar experience with PlantUML. Everything is fine, but then if you as much as look at it the wrong way, the diagram gets twisted inside out. It's manageable once you get some experience with it, but I really miss the ability to inject some additional hard constraints into the diagram, like "I don't care what your layout engine thinks, these five nodes are to be in top-left corner and should line up perfectly; arrange everything else around it". I'd happily take 5-10x longer image generation if that's what it takes to have a proper constraint solver involved.
Regardless, it still beats the hell out of arranging diagrams with a mouse. With PlantUML in particular, once you learn how to use the preprocessor to define macros, building larger diagrams becomes super-fast.
Declarativeness + fragility. That's how I refer to similar experience with PlantUML. Everything is fine, but then if you as much as look at it the wrong way, the diagram gets twisted inside out. It's manageable once you get some experience with it, but I really miss the ability to inject some additional hard constraints into the diagram, like "I don't care what your layout engine thinks, these five nodes are to be in top-left corner and should line up perfectly; arrange everything else around it". I'd happily take 5-10x longer image generation if that's what it takes to have a proper constraint solver involved.
Regardless, it still beats the hell out of arranging diagrams with a mouse. With PlantUML in particular, once you learn how to use the preprocessor to define macros, building larger diagrams becomes super-fast.