I really wish to find some tool to replace Enterprise Architect that runs, unfortunately, only in Windows.
For me is really important traceability, starting from the requirements.
Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
71–80 of 92 posts
Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
#72I enjoy using Mermaid: https://mermaidjs.github.io It does not support all the diagrams yet, but it's completely themable and you can code away your diagrams like you would with dot/graphviz. It integrates well into any Markdown tool, Gitlab integrated it about a year ago so it's natively available in Gitlab flavored Markdow.
Any comparisons of Mermaid vs other tools? Why do you like Mermaid? I use Plantuml myself and I find that I regularly have to fight with the layout engine to get diagrams to looks the way I want them too.
Mermaid is a bit nicer than PlantUML in that it isn't a Java blob that spits out PNGs. Easier to integrate into web things. Also the default style is much nicer.
But I think PlantUML is more capable.
Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
#73I also use Draw.io and recommend it highly. It's web-based, so it's also cross platform. However, Lucidcharts has a better UI in that I can build diagrams after in LC than Draw.io. https://www.lucidchart.com/pages/ LC is paid if you need more than 1 chart (who doesn't?). But Draw.io is free. LC is also web-based and is cross-platform. I've heard OmniGraffle is also excellent (never used it myself) but it only works o…
OmniGraffle is freaking amazing. If you're on a mac then RUN (don't walk) to grab a copy and try it out. it's also SO much more than just UML. I have found SO many uses for it.
> OmniGraffle is freaking amazing.
On the whole I like OmniGraffle, but I _hate_ the curves that it draws. If I use it to make a diagram, I have to spend so much time making the curved lines between shapes not look like shit.
Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
#74For prettiness, Visio or OmniGraffle. For shareable web editing, LucidChart or Draw.io. For quick easy text markup, PlantUML or Mermaid. I have not found any UML tool that's pretty, shareable, round-trippable, and has easy text markup. Demo of PlantUML: https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/demo_plantuml .
Can you elaborate "round-trippable"?
Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
#75For all sorts of diagrams, this software is awesome: yEd https://www.yworks.com/products/yed Favorite feature: automatically reorganize the chart according to your preferences/constraints (e.g. fewer line intersections, hub-spoke, hierarchical, etc)
yEd isn't exactly modern-looking though. I've recently used it on Ubuntu 16.04 but my colleague on Ubuntu 18.04 couldn't because the menu or window handles were cut off. As IntelliJ shows, using Java/Swing is no excuse for an app to look like a Windows 3.1 app migrated over to Windows95. But then UML is from a time and mindset when win32-like and Java-like OOP and Hungary notation were sold to people and I guess a ce…
Not only IntelliJ, "Filthy Rich Clients" (http://filthyrichclients.org/) is a must read for anyone that cares about doing proper UIs in Swing.
And being aware of component libraries like JGoodies (http://www.jgoodies.com/).
Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
#76You should really ask yourself why you're drawing UML diagrams at all.
You know, there are lots of people selling snake-oil, drawing boxes and arrows that make you feel good, but ultimately have no real meaning. If something is really meaningful you should be able to express it in mathematics. - Leslie Lamport
... via https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
If you need to visualize, take more precise states as a basis and take a look at graphviz[0]. If you need to model multi-agent systems, use mscgen[1] to draw Message Sequence Charts.
Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
#77I came across a recent blog post[1], that mentioned some text-to-diagram tools, out of which I liked Gleek.io and nomnoml in particular.
[1] https://avdi.codes/tools-for-turning-descriptions-into-diagr...
Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
#78For prettiness, Visio or OmniGraffle. For shareable web editing, LucidChart or Draw.io. For quick easy text markup, PlantUML or Mermaid. I have not found any UML tool that's pretty, shareable, round-trippable, and has easy text markup. Demo of PlantUML: https://github.com/joelparkerhenderson/demo_plantuml .
Can you elaborate "round-trippable"?
Not OP, but I'd say that it is in a text-ish format that can be fed into a generator that can turn the document into code. Some of these UML editors spit out a PNG, which is pretty but useless for code generation or automated use of the information.
Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
#79You should really ask yourself why you're drawing UML diagrams at all. You know, there are lots of people selling snake-oil, drawing boxes and arrows that make you feel good, but ultimately have no real meaning. If something is really meaningful you should be able to express it in mathematics. - Leslie Lamport ... via https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup If you need to visualize, take more precise states as a basis…
I'll second graphviz, aside from it's standalone strengths it integrates well with doxygen and the two combined make for some great documentation.
I use it for sequence charts as well by using sublabels (not sure what they're really called), usually I don't care so much about the sequence but where the choke points in this giant pile of steaming enterprise are:
SomeObject[label=" someMethod1 | someMethod2"];
Foo -> SomeObject:someMethod2;Re: Ask HN: A modern-looking UML diagram tool?
#80Here is a link to a few UML diagramming tool, check them out, might find the one you are looking for.
UML Diagramming Software for Windows: https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/29/featured/free-uml-desig...
Online UML Digaramming Tools: https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/22/webware/free-websites-t...