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Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems

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Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems

#81

Post by alxlaz »

alixanderwang wrote: post #78
alxlaz wrote: post #58

Can I nitpick two things about the website? I don't mean to be an asshole about it or anything, I just hope it can help in some way: - I think the mobile detection thing uses nothing but window size to determine if this is on a mobile browser or a desktop, so it mistakes my (definitely desktop) browser window for a mobile one. I know from my friends who do frontend stuff that reliably detecting a mobile browser isn't…

I'm curious, do you (or anyone else) even have an interest in creating diagrams on mobile? It's never crossed my mind as a conducive platform for creating diagram because of the small screen size. I've thought about viewing diagrams in mobile, but again I'm unsure of the desire from other people to do so. (It isn't too hard to get this working as a viewing platform for mobile)

Not really, and I don't really see how that would work on a touch interface. I've seen countless attempts at making tablets (and phones) useful for more than looking at cat pics and watching cat videos and they've all sucked.

But being able to at least easily view diagrams on mobile may be useful, I guess? I'm not sure if it's supported right now.

Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems

#83

Post by alxlaz »

alixanderwang wrote: post #66
alxlaz wrote: post #58

Can I nitpick two things about the website? I don't mean to be an asshole about it or anything, I just hope it can help in some way: - I think the mobile detection thing uses nothing but window size to determine if this is on a mobile browser or a desktop, so it mistakes my (definitely desktop) browser window for a mobile one. I know from my friends who do frontend stuff that reliably detecting a mobile browser isn't…

Your nitpicks are absolutely welcome! Re: sizing: interesting, that’s the first report of it failing, I indeed should do a require desktop version. Are you talking about the landing page or the app? The app uses javascript to detect, the landing page uses page width. Re:spelling, plural of proper nouns should use apostrophes I think, no? Eg “how many Airbnb’s did you book”. I’m not sure if making those proper nouns w…

> Re: sizing: interesting, that’s the first report of it failing, I indeed should do a require desktop version. Are you talking about the landing page or the app? The app uses javascript to detect, the landing page uses page width.

Ah, I'm talking about the landing page. Sorry, I should have been more clear. If it's not something that you can easily reproduce on your end (see this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21960897 ) let me know, I can send you more details about what I'm using.

> Re:spelling, plural of proper nouns should use apostrophes I think, no?

Someone's already answered this -- I'm just chiming in to let you know that this is an extraordinary common error, even among native speakers. I have literally seen C-level executives making it in their emails, and I'm sure it wasn't a typo or something because they didn't get a single damn plural right. So don't feel bad about it. If you're not a native speaker and learned English by yourself, you've likely picked it up from someone who is :-).

(FWIW, I'm not a native speaker, either, I just had really good teachers.)

> I’m not sure if making those proper nouns was the right choice, I wanted to highlight that they were terms in the app.

I don't think that's too big a problem :). I'm fairly sure it's not correct (I don't think they're proper nouns, just like class, object or channel, all of which have specific meanings in the context of one technology or another). But the English language does have a tradition of weird capitalization, and capitalizing them doesn't change anything in terms of meaning. It's not the same as using a possessive form instead of a plural form.

Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems

#85

Post by alxlaz »

tyingq wrote: post #74
alixanderwang wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow why did I think proper nouns used apostrophes for plurals, oof. Fixed. Thank you and OP of comment!

Probably because of weird rules like "children's room" and "four cows' pasture", then the contrary notion that "it's" is incorrect for possessive form because "it is" already used for a contraction of "it is". English sucks.

I'm not a native English speaker and the fact that this is such a common error among native speakers baffles me because the rules that govern these things are very simple. Conventions about when to omit the 's' after the apostrophe differ from one set of guidelines to another (see e.g. https://www.dailywritingtips.com/possessive-of-proper-names-... ), but that's the only non-uniform thing about it.

There's nothing weird about "it's" being incorrect. Pronouns have their own possessive forms. You say her keyboard is white, not she's keyboard is white, and his shirt is yellow, not he's shirt is yellow -- why would you say it's collar is white?

You guys have no idea how easy English is, you should be happy about it and love it and cherish it forever! My native language has a phonetic alphabet, so it's easier to figure out how to pronounce words (i.e. no "lead men in battle" vs "the pipes are made of lead" bullshit). But forming possessives for plurals is waaaay more complicated than "add 's, except if the noun already has an s at the end".

Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems

#86

Post by alixanderwang »

__adrien wrote: post #77

Hey! I got things i could see that could improve this greatly: - have a dot format (graphviz) importer (and maybe exporter), something simple to allow people to programmatically import/update their existing architecture. - alternatively have a json format, same thing (versioning, hand update, generation etc) - allow with a shortcut (alt key, whatever) to draw links between objects directly. Creating links is tedious…

Thanks for those suggestions! Agreed with all of them, especially having quicker ways to do common actions like add links, will be working on that next.

Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems

#87

Post by macintux »

alixanderwang wrote: post #78
alxlaz wrote: post #58

Can I nitpick two things about the website? I don't mean to be an asshole about it or anything, I just hope it can help in some way: - I think the mobile detection thing uses nothing but window size to determine if this is on a mobile browser or a desktop, so it mistakes my (definitely desktop) browser window for a mobile one. I know from my friends who do frontend stuff that reliably detecting a mobile browser isn't…

I'm curious, do you (or anyone else) even have an interest in creating diagrams on mobile? It's never crossed my mind as a conducive platform for creating diagram because of the small screen size. I've thought about viewing diagrams in mobile, but again I'm unsure of the desire from other people to do so. (It isn't too hard to get this working as a viewing platform for mobile)

I experimented with it on my iPad, and came away frustrated. I definitely like to use my iPad when practical.

Re: Show HN: Terrastruct – A Diagramming Tool for Systems

#90

Post by tyingq »

alxlaz wrote: post #85
tyingq wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because of weird rules like "children's room" and "four cows' pasture", then the contrary notion that "it's" is incorrect for possessive form because "it is" already used for a contraction of "it is". English sucks.

I'm not a native English speaker and the fact that this is such a common error among native speakers baffles me because the rules that govern these things are very simple. Conventions about when to omit the 's' after the apostrophe differ from one set of guidelines to another (see e.g. https://www.dailywritingtips.com/possessive-of-proper-names-... ), but that's the only non-uniform thing about it. There's nothing we…

Apostrophes are confusing and overloaded for several purposes.

His report card received four A’s and two B’s.

So, for plurals. Sometimes. Possessives, sometimes, and sometimes omitting the s after an s, other times not. And contractions, where ' is a placeholder for 9 or 10 different things.

""add 's, except if the noun already has an s at the end"

Texas's laws are conservative. (You'll find credible style guides with conflicting advice)

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