Note that the cell options syntax is slightly different for ( %%| and //|, respectively) because they have distinct character sequences for single-line comments. Graphviz diagrams use // as their comment syntax, and so Graphviz options are declared using //|.įor example, here is a simple undirected graph created using graphviz: Graphviz has many useful features for concrete diagrams, such as options for colors, fonts, tabular node layouts, line styles, hyperlinks, and custom shapes. The Graphviz layout programs take descriptions of graphs in a simple text language, and make diagrams in useful formats. To learn more about using Mermaid, see the Mermaid website or the Mermaid book (which is written by the creator of Mermaid). See the section below on Mermaid Formats for additional details. Note that Mermaid output varies depending on the target format (e.g. HTML vs. print-based). This puts it right up there with venerable command-line utilities like curl and ImageMagick.Note right of John: Rational thoughts prevail! When I skimmed through modern diagramming tools, nothing even came close! Do you know of any other tools that can do this kind of thing?Īccording to, Graphviz is 26 years old. It’s obviously not perfect, but Graphviz satisfied my criteria. This is what I love about large-community projects like VS Code. A different developer contributed each piece of the puzzle, and I discovered and installed them in about three seconds. So there I was, nearly done cobbling together my own tooling to work on Graphviz diagrams, when I found a much smoother experience presented on a silver platter. I _was_ surprised, however, by the, which previews the output right there in the editor, as you type! I wasn’t surprised at all by the, which provides syntax highlighting for this arcane language. I searched Visual Studio Code’s available extensions: One last stop before I start writing: syntax highlighting. None of my SVG-viewing applications pick up the file change automatically, but it’s not too bad to tab over and refresh. Next, wanting to iterate quickly, I set up a watcher to automatically recompile when the input file changes. The primary tool in the Graphviz suite is `dot`, which reads a source file and emits one of several output types. It’s not beautiful, but it sure beats dragging endpoints around with a mouse. Here’s the source for the image at the top of the post: The documentation scared me a little when it warned that the syntax is _”not really HTML,”_ but then they made up for it by providing a formal grammar of exactly what is accepted. , read through some documentation, and finally found just the ticket.Ī relatively recent addition to Graphviz (circa 2003!) is the This carefully-named feature lets you specify node appearance using familiar HTML ` ` syntax, with the addition of named _ports_ where you can connect arrows. I was familiar with its flowchart-like diagrams of bubbles, boxes, and diamonds, but I thought I’d check to see if it could be coaxed into producing connected tables. Even if you haven’t used it directly, you’ve probably seen Graphviz output before, perhaps in an or a database. is a collection of utilities and libraries for generating diagrams from a language called DOT. I intended to check these files into source control, so they needed to diff and merge nicely.ĭo any tools come to mind? I searched around for a while before dusting off an old one:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |