C4-PlantUML VS text-to-diagram-site

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

One of those "text to diagram" contenders did a comparison website (open source) a while back: https://text-to-diagram.com/ (nomnoml isn't in there).

Community list of comparisons between Text to Diagram tools: https://text-to-diagram.com/

https://text-to-diagram.com/?example=sequence&b=mermaid

If you can get enough data out of the ticket system, maybe something like https://text-to-diagram.com/ will help.

We made a site to let people compare: https://text-to-diagram.com . (Mermaid maintainers contribute to it)

I think Mermaid is better than PlantUML to write something quickly.

But D2 looks very promising. I like the simpler and more intuitive syntax.

https://text-to-diagram.com/

have you seen https://text-to-diagram.com/ for comparing these flowcharts including mermaidJS and graphwiz as you mentioned and there are a few more there.

Yes, it's a limited generator, because it's like 20 lines long and not the point of the article.

If you want to compare Mermaid against D2, take a look at https://text-to-diagram.com. The maintainers of Mermaid have contributed to it.

For a comparison with other popular text-to-diagram tools: https://text-to-diagram.com (the maintainers of Mermaid have contributed to this).

Comparison to other diagramming languages you might've heard of: https://text-to-diagram.com. (contributors of Mermaid themselves have contributed to it)