Nice tool, I can see myself using it.
I was intuitively clicking on the boxes expecting to go to the details of that component. It would be nice to move deeper into sub-layers dynamically, instead of relying on the side tree menu.
Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
11–20 of 103 posts
Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
#12Any relationship to terraform?
Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s what I use as well! And it works perfectly when what I’m diagramming is pretty simple. It’s just that when I’m trying to diagram anything nontrivial, I can’t map it out on a one dimensional diagram without it turning into a mess. That’s why I created this!
Hmm. Can you expand further? I also use draw.io and a quick look at your landing page did not enlighten me.
So for example, I’d often want to add some sequences to diagrams, and the only way to do so is by numbering the connections, which in my experience becomes too messy/confusing after the single digits.
Another example is if I’m diagramming an API, the paths that a request takes differs under different conditions/scenarios. So a canonical diagram for a system in a company design doc ends up only illuminating the happy path of a successful request, missing so many detail because it couldn’t fit nicely into one diagram.
Another is my issue with scattered diagrams detailing different subsystems. Eg a high level overview contains many microservices each diagrammed by their own teams. I wanted to be able to hop layers, easily going up and down a subsystem to see how they behave when handling something. And in my experience, decentralized diagrams within an org ends up becoming a guessing game of which one is most up to date and which ones haven’t been deprecated.
Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
#14After playing with it for a few minutes, this looks like it could be a really handy tool. Often times I'd find myself creating enormous diagrams trying to capture everything your tool handles more gracefully. Is there some way to export data (SVG ideally) so I can use the diagrams in other apps? Also, I noticed that saving a diagram doesn't retain labels I give a block.
I had the same label-saving problem in Firefox. Chrome seemed fine. It would be nice if there was an obvious way to report issues through the interface.
There is a send feedback feature, it’s in the drop down under your username top left. Thanks so much for reporting that, because I had only tested it extensively in Chrome and hadn’t seen that.
Edit: I've fixed it. (apparently you can't use innerText in Firefox, has to be textContent)
Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hmm. Can you expand further? I also use draw.io and a quick look at your landing page did not enlighten me.
So for example, I’d often want to add some sequences to diagrams, and the only way to do so is by numbering the connections, which in my experience becomes too messy/confusing after the single digits. Another example is if I’m diagramming an API, the paths that a request takes differs under different conditions/scenarios. So a canonical diagram for a system in a company design doc ends up only illuminating the happy…
Now I understand. Feedback: landing page should probably focus on communicating this: like draw.io, but gracefully handling paths, cases, alternatives, and scenarios. Good job!
Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
#16How is this different from draw.io?
See the thread above (currently), I responded there on this question.
Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
So for example, I’d often want to add some sequences to diagrams, and the only way to do so is by numbering the connections, which in my experience becomes too messy/confusing after the single digits. Another example is if I’m diagramming an API, the paths that a request takes differs under different conditions/scenarios. So a canonical diagram for a system in a company design doc ends up only illuminating the happy…
Now I understand. Feedback: landing page should probably focus on communicating this: like draw.io, but gracefully handling paths, cases, alternatives, and scenarios. Good job!
Yeah I’ve gotten more draw.io comments than I expected haha. I didn’t know it was mainstream enough to say “like X for Y”, but I’ll add something to mention it. Thanks for the feedback!
Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
#18I like it, but just browsing the site quickly I’m not seeing something I’ve grown accustom to: sequence diagrams. My auth system for an embedded product to hit AWS is three players and fairly complex to explain. Makes sense to me as a sequence diagram, does anyone know if this option exists?
This is designed for sequences! You have to create a scenario (name of your sequence, eg “auth request”), and then you create frames for it. Frames are steps of a sequence.
I used to use websequencediagrams.com for this btw, in case that fits your needs too!
Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
#19I would prefer to use local programs to make such things. Is there such a open source software that uses Xaw or just plain X window, preferably where the file format is a sequence of PostScript tokens (to make it easy to write a parser for the file format in PostScript (I also wrote a JSON parser in PostScript, so JSON would also work))?
Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems
#20[deleted]