D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#1

Post by alixanderwang » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 6:14 PM UTC

D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders
d2lang.com

Re: D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#2

Post by robertlagrant » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 7:01 PM UTC

This looks cool. And I saw the previous post you got C4 support! I'm just about to do some C4 things; I'll check it out.

Re: D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#3

Post by alixanderwang » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 7:06 PM UTC

Hello fellow devs. Just wanted to share a new feature we added this morning, though it's very alpha stage (already someone's filed a github issue for it hah)

If you want to skip the blog post and poke around directly: https://play.d2lang.com/?script=qlDQtVOotFLIyFTwSEzOTi1S8Est...

For a bigger example: https://play.d2lang.com/?script=rJJBjtswDEX3OgWBrm2kzU4Feoru...

Re: D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#4

Post by reactordev » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 7:30 PM UTC

The vim extension is such a flex...

Re: D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#5

Post by jillesvangurp » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 7:52 PM UTC

Llm to text to diagram is the killer workflow these days.

The key challenge is making these things presentable. Optimizing them for human editability is a secondary concern at this point. This is where a lot of these tools fall apart.

Re: D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#6

Post by eric-p7 » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 7:58 PM UTC

Not to be confused with The D Programming Language, which has a similar domain (dlang.org), and is currently on version 2.

Re: D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#7

Post by billyp-rva » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 8:02 PM UTC

jillesvangurp wrote: post #5

Llm to text to diagram is the killer workflow these days. The key challenge is making these things presentable. Optimizing them for human editability is a secondary concern at this point. This is where a lot of these tools fall apart.

> Llm to text to diagram is the killer workflow these days.

It's useful, but I think only marginally. When using a diagrams-as-code tool, having an LLM write it for you gets you up and running faster, but long term you have more control (and no hallucinations) just writing the code yourself. It'll probably be fewer keystrokes in the end. Doubly so if your diagrams-as-code tool has decent autocomplete.

Re: D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#8

Post by bxpn77 » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 8:16 PM UTC

Super cool!

Re: D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#9

Post by rng-concern » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 8:50 PM UTC

alixanderwang wrote: post #3

Hello fellow devs. Just wanted to share a new feature we added this morning, though it's very alpha stage (already someone's filed a github issue for it hah) If you want to skip the blog post and poke around directly: https://play.d2lang.com/?script=qlDQtVOotFLIyFTwSEzOTi1S8Est... For a bigger example: https://play.d2lang.com/?script=rJJBjtswDEX3OgWBrm2kzU4Feoru...

I thought your playground wasn't working as it renders black text on black background. Maybe I have darkmode enabled or something. Other renderers work, but ascii is invisible.

Re: D2 (text to diagram tool) now supports ASCII renders

#10

Post by justonceokay » Tue, Aug 19, 2025, 8:52 PM UTC

jillesvangurp wrote: post #5

Llm to text to diagram is the killer workflow these days. The key challenge is making these things presentable. Optimizing them for human editability is a secondary concern at this point. This is where a lot of these tools fall apart.

I use LLM to tell my children bedtime stories and to wish my wife goodnight. Saves me a lot of time and energy