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Quiver: A modern commutative diagram editor

github.com

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Re: Quiver: A modern commutative diagram editor

#51

Post by varkor »

emmanueloga_ wrote: post #42

This looks incredibly well done, congrats! A quick thing that occurs to me, adding all those elements by point and click appears to be extremely tedious, reminds me of working with music notation software and how I prefer much more something like lilypond. This makes me wonder, is there some text serialization that could be written by hand? I picture something like graphviz notation. Quiver could use a force-directed…

There's currently no direct textual input: I have considered it, but I feel it would be less efficient than the diagrammatic approach. Let me note that there is full keyboard support, which can be faster than drawing the diagrams by hand: you can see the keyboard shortcuts from the "Shortcuts" toolbar button.

Re: Quiver: A modern commutative diagram editor

#52

Post by chris_st »

yborg wrote: post #16
chris_st wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunate name collision with the macOS/iOS note taking app Quiver [1] which doesn't do diagrams, but does do LaTeX. [1] https://happenapps.com

Actually it does diagrams, sequence and flowchart. Sadly, the app has gotten more or less no development for at least 4 years and the developer has stopped responding to bug reports for at least a year. It's abandonware at this point.

Thanks for the correction! I used to use it too (I use Obsidian [1] now). Also sorry it hasn't been updated. I kind of felt that while powerful, it was also too complicated some times.

[1] https://obsidian.md

Re: Quiver: A modern commutative diagram editor

#53

Post by varkor »

sharat87 wrote: post #35

I just took a cursory look at the Javascript source and looks like it's built without any view framework or even jQuery. Is this correct? As a backend developer curious about such frontend development, could you write up on how to architecture large apps without a reactive view framework behind. Or, if a write-up like that exists, a pointer would also be great.

This is correct: I like having full control over the application behaviour (at least down to the browser), and for a relatively small implementation like this, it's quite manageable. I make no claim this is sensible, but I've been bitten by obscure bugs in large libraries before and this way I find debugging is much easier, because I typically only have to worry about my own code.

I'm not sure I would recommend this strategy to others. It very much comes down to a personal preference, and I imagine using an existing framework would be much more accessible to someone starting frontend development. I feel I might get some stick if I were to suggest this to newcomers :) I'm afraid I don't know of any existing write-ups!

Re: Quiver: A modern commutative diagram editor

#54

Post by enriquto »

varkor wrote: post #50
enriquto wrote: post #47

I tried to draw my favourite commutative diagram. Some UI troubles: 1. I would like to be able to move a node by dragging it around. 2. While the "b" key does its job to move the objects, it is very confusing because it pans the view so that the moving object is fixed, giving the impression that everything moves but the object in question.

You can move vertices by clicking and dragging in the empty space around them. I appreciate this isn't immediately intuitive and I'm trying to come up with a better way to reveal this to the user. I also agree that fixing the view to the vertices with B can be confusing. My plan is to change this. Thanks for your comments!

I guess the opposite behavior would be more intuitive. If you drag the interior of the node, it moves. To add a new arrow you drag from the immediate outside of the node.

Besides, in tikz I draw 3D commutative diagrams whose arrows pass in front/behind of each other. It is rather annoying to write the code for that, and it would be nice to do that somewhat automatically. Does quiver support this? For example, to draw a 3D cube.

EDIT: more comments: there are some important missing arrowhead styles. For example, if there are bijections in your diagram, it is common to use a single bidirectional arrow with two arrohweads.

Re: Quiver: A modern commutative diagram editor

#55

Post by varkor »

enriquto wrote: post #54
varkor wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can move vertices by clicking and dragging in the empty space around them. I appreciate this isn't immediately intuitive and I'm trying to come up with a better way to reveal this to the user. I also agree that fixing the view to the vertices with B can be confusing. My plan is to change this. Thanks for your comments!

I guess the opposite behavior would be more intuitive. If you drag the interior of the node, it moves. To add a new arrow you drag from the immediate outside of the node. Besides, in tikz I draw 3D commutative diagrams whose arrows pass in front/behind of each other. It is rather annoying to write the code for that, and it would be nice to do that somewhat automatically. Does quiver support this? For example, to draw…

There are open issues for these feature requests:

- Crossing over arrows: https://github.com/varkor/quiver/issues/19

- Two-headed arrows: https://github.com/varkor/quiver/issues/37

I hope to get to them before too long. Thanks for the suggestions!

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