C4-PlantUML VS excalidraw

C4-PlantUML: Export your model as C4-PlantUML diagrams.

PlantUML + C4 plugin;

Yes. I use this all the time for software diagramming. With c4 model (https://github.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML) and AWS icons (https://github.com/awslabs/aws-icons-for-plantuml)

The C4 model (https://c4model.com/) is great for architecture diagrams. You can use different tools to generate them. Here are the ones I've been using:

- https://github.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML

3️⃣ Text-based diagramming- C4-PlantUML

> onboarding docs

yes, they're don't changing frequently

> system design docs

yes - see C4-PlantUML[1]

> meeting notes

no, unless they're directly code related like ADRs [2,3].

Although one can abuse Github Issues + comments for this, in my opinion it's better to use modern SaaS tools for this, i.e. Loom, Descript, Linear.app, etc. - you can automate this process, e.g. transcribe the meeting's recording and add the issue/repo using Github Actions.

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[1] https://github.com/plantuml-stdlib/C4-PlantUML

[2] https://adr.github.io/

[3] https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/arc...

I use a combination of: * Markdown (for notes and code blocks) * Mermaid markdown (for architectural diagrams in markdown documents) * PlantUML markdown (again for arch. docs in markdown, but mainly for C4 diagrams) * a Docker container to render PlantUML markdown to images * Joplin, installed on every device I regularly use * NextCloud, to store, secure, encrypt, and make available everywhere, the markdown notes managed by Joplin

ExcaliDraw - https://excalidraw.com/

ExcaliDraw

However, Notion and Obsidian can only help you write documentation. Well, how about some visuals? Let's talk about Excalidraw.

Fun fact: I used GA in Excalidraw, and it's still powering some of the interactions! https://github.com/excalidraw/excalidraw/blob/master/package...

I was happy to find out recently that there is a way to make Mermaid diagrams WYSIWYG / drag and drop editable that the open source https://excalidraw.com has and did I mention it's open source!? With a LLM, you can go full loop back to Mermaid again after a few rounds of manual editing. "What a time to be alive!"

I'm working on a personal project and found myself looking for an alternative to Postman/Insomnia this morning. This made me realize i've been using the same tools for so long for work (mobile development, finance) that this project may be a good time to try out some new things.

Here are a few tools that i've been using lately that I really enjoy:

https://pocketbase.io/ - A dead-simple self-hosted firebase/supabase-like "backend in a box" using golang and sqlite. So far i've been really impressed. I've gone the route of extending the base offering with more go code and am really enjoying the experience.

https://excalidraw.com/ - An open source whiteboarding tool. Slick to use and after learning some keybinds I've gotten pretty fast at throwing together diagrams to explain things to people on my team. The killer piece though is that the filetype is just json, so I can source control my diagrams. Even better, their "export to png" function has a box to embed the json data _into_ the png, allowing me to slap the diagram in places that only accept images (think confluence) and still be able to change the diagram later if needed. 10/10.

https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/ - Gitlab's CI/CD toolset is really impressive, and I've gotten really intimate with it's deeper features over the past year. I'd be curious though to hear from someone who's familiar with it vs it's competitors.

Sketch easy and go back to work...

https://excalidraw.com/