Название: Creating Software with Modern Diagramming Techniques: Build Better Software with Mermaid
Автор: Ashley Peacock
Издательство: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Год: February 2023 (Version: P1.0)
Страниц: 249
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf, epub
Размер: 10.2 MB

Diagrams communicate relationships more directly and clearly than words ever can. Using only text-based markup, create meaningful and attractive diagrams to document your domain, visualize user flows, reveal system architecture at any desired level, or refactor your code. With the tools and techniques this book will give you, you'll create a wide variety of diagrams in minutes, share them with others, and revise and update them immediately on the basis of feedback. Adding diagrams to your professional vocabulary will enable you to work through your ideas quickly when working on your own code or discussing a proposal with colleagues.

We’ll start out by introducing most of the key concepts used throughout the book: Mermaid and UML. We’ll cover a brief history of UML, get you set up with Mermaid, and even produce your first diagram! In this book, we’ll cover two main diagramming techniques. The first is Unified Modeling Language (UML), which was first created in the mid-1990s and is now looked after by the Object Management Group, who oversee its development and updates. Its aim is to provide a standard set of diagrams to visualize the design of a system or set of systems. UML deals with three types of diagrams: structure, behavior, and interaction. The second diagramming technique we’ll use is the C4 model, which will enable us to model our software architecture in a simple and readable way.

Why Mermaid over other tools, such as PlantUML? Some of this will become apparent in later chapters, particularly the final one, but in the past PlantUML was a hard sell to engineers as there weren’t any major adoptions for it. Mermaid, however, in constrast is making waves, with GitHub and GitLab both having native support for rendering Mermaid diagrams without any additional tooling. Using tools like Mermaid, we can quickly and easily create an array of diagrams using syntax similar to Markdown. The majority of diagrams I created for this book, which you will see in later chapters, took no longer than ten to fifteen minutes to create the first drafts.

Expand your professional vocabulary by learning to communicate with diagrams as easily and naturally as speaking or writing. This book will provide you with the skills and tools to turn ideas into clear, meaningful, and attractive diagrams in mere minutes, using nothing more complicated than text-based markup. You'll learn what kinds of diagrams are suited to each of a variety of use cases, from documenting your domain to understanding how complex code pieces together. Model your software's architecture, creating diagrams focused broadly or narrowly, depending on the audience. Visualize application and user flows, design database schemas, and use diagrams iteratively to design and refactor your application.

You'll be able to use technical diagramming to improve your day-to-day workflow. You will better understand the codebase you work in, communicate ideas more effectively and immediately with others, and more clearly document the architecture with C4 diagrams. Manually creating diagrams is cumbersome and time-consuming. You'll learn how to use text-based tools like Mermaid to rapidly turn ideas into diagrams. And You'll learn how to keep your diagrams up to date and seamlessly integrated into your engineering workflow. You'll be better at visualizing and communicating when you add diagrams to your standard vocabulary.

What You Need
A Mac or PC
A GitHub account

Who Should Read This Book?
This book is aimed primarily at engineers, of any level, who want to learn how to introduce diagrams into their development workflows. No prior knowledge is needed of any programming languages, and Mermaid’s syntax is incredibly simple and easy to pick up. Technical concepts are mentioned in the book, such as domain-driven design, but they all have a brief introduction and explanation. If you want to become a better engineer, and in particular become better at conveying your thoughts and ideas, then you’re in the right place. There’s no easier way to convey your ideas, in my opinion, than a diagram.