Sequence diagrams, the only good thing UML brought to software development

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on news.ycombinator.com

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  • c4-notation

    Technical resources for using the C4 model for visualizing software architecture.

  • > What do you think is the whole point of a modeling language?

    Not building an entire system down to class level which is what it is all too often used for (in my experience exclusively by people who have never and cannot code).

    It's inefficient, doesn't play well with Software Engineering (diff, version control etc..) and is a relic of the past.

    Keep the classes in code, project that into a diagram for the few occasions that is actually needed, and stick to a simplified tool like C4 (https://c4model.com) for your architectural views. Sprinkle some sequence diagrams in too to help describe the key data flows (they're handy next to C4).

    Why use C4 over UML? Because the vast majority of the audience don't even know what UML is. So keep it extremely simple and include a key / guide to any of the (few) shapes or colors you use so that it's completely self contained.

    The vast majority of UML belongs to be put into the Indiana Jones storage facility along with other archaic ideas such as Function Points / Function Point Analysis.

  • SCION

    Discontinued SCXML/Statecharts in JavaScript, moved to gitlab: https://gitlab.com/scion-scxml/scion (by jbeard4)

  • SurveyJS

    Open-Source JSON Form Builder to Create Dynamic Forms Right in Your App. With SurveyJS form UI libraries, you can build and style forms in a fully-integrated drag & drop form builder, render them in your JS app, and store form submission data in any backend, inc. PHP, ASP.NET Core, and Node.js.

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  • xstate

    Actor-based state management & orchestration for complex app logic.

  • Mermaid

    Edit, preview and share mermaid charts/diagrams. New implementation of the live editor.

  • with a fancier image for the customer than a box. Try it out at https://mermaid.live (linked from https://mermaid.js.org/)

    Or this one, from a service I worked on a couple of years ago:

        sequenceDiagram

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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