MermaidJS is also a good alternative: https://mermaid-js.github.io/mermaid-live-editor/

GitLab has mermaid support in its markdown https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/markdown.html#mermaid

Mermaid became quite a common markdown feature. It is supported in a lot of places already. It can easily be integrated as it is pure client side javascript.

So does Wiki.js [1]. Pretty fancy.

[1] https://docs.requarks.io/editors/markdown#mermaid-diagrams

Plantuml plugin within Confluence is pretty nice for documentation, and arguably a super-power because it makes it easier to make good docs ("a picture is worth a thousand words").

The source shows up in edit mode (no external app needed; and it's always correct) and it handles the rendering for you, thus reducing friction.

In other places I've seen people attach a PNG. If you're lucky, they've also attached the corresponding (and up-to-date) source in visio/draw/ppt/whatever random app format, in which case making a small edit might only takes ten of minutes. In the worst case, it's missing source, the source file is not the same as the PNG, or they used some program you don't have, and you have to totally redo it. For most people if the friction is too high, it just doesn't get updated.

Logged in specifically to agree and upvote this comment!

- on-demand preview of changes before i hit save

- source code is always embedded with the diagram and anyone can reference and edit

- source controlled history via confluence history

I've used mermaid extensively but ultimately abandoned it because it didn't have a good flow for sharing the source and history. Confluence + PlantUML is a great solution.

Big fan of PlantUML, didn't occur to me that there'd be Confluence plugins. Which one are you using?

I didn't realize there were multiple now! We use "PlantUML for Confluence" [1] now but have had that for a few years. The live preview thing some of the others seem to have would be nice.

[1] https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/41025/plantuml-for-co...

collated these diagramming tools here: https://github.com/sw-yx/spark-joy/blob/master/README.md#gen...

Thanks. Please do identify when they're open source -- I have been bitten by filling a small app of unknown longevity with my system diagrams and flowcharts, only to have it disappear.

ouch. at this point itd take a long time for me to backfill that info but will try going fwd

Here's one I didn't see on your list:

https://wavedrom.com/

Any plans to do curated?

i mean i will inject my opinions when i have to use these things in anger, right now it is just a raw list for future usage. i do put little stars or warnings against some items when i have an opinion.

you're welcome to PR in some commentary on each of them though. or fork it and curate. its open source knowledge :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoATf7xGoUY

https://sequencediagram.org is another alternative

Yeah - happy user of this one for years :)

Plantuml won't even run with uBlock on. Well it will run, but no diagram. Not that interested in trying to divine just which little thing it wants on to work given there are so many alternatives.

Okay. That's a bummer. But also: PlantUML is a lot more, or a lot different than another online diagramming tool. Their strength is expressing the diagrams using plain text. Having used my share of tools, l have never not hated drawing sequence diagrams, but in plain text it is a dream. They have command line tools, IDE integrations, etc.

Plantuml can also style as hand drawn with a skinparam https://plantuml.com/handwritten

Ilograph supports interactive sequence diagrams e.g. https://app.ilograph.com/demo.ilograph.Ilograph/Get%2520Diag...

also see zenuml.com

I was just looking at that a few days ago. But don't want something that works on-line. Any good equivalent local tools?

FWIW, https://diagrams.net/ also have a downloadable version. But it's a point and click WYSIWYG editor, not a text notation like swimlanes.io.

There is a desktop version that works off-line: https://www.ilograph.com/desktop/index.html

Let's not forget the venerable UMLet (https://www.umlet.com). It's simple, cross platform, and supports a variety of UML diagrams using a text-based syntax.

As we're listing alternatives, Lucidchart also supports generated UML Sequence Diagrams, which lets you use their GUI after generation to customize it / alter as desired

i prefer sequencediagram.org

no upsell and pretty full featured. developer is responsive (i’ve had a couple minor things addressed).

most importantly you can export to svg. then i load into inkscape if i need a tweak for publication