Show HN: Vexlio for macOS now available | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Vexlio for macOS now available

vexlio.com

11 pointsttd14 comments

Hello again HN,

Creator here. I'm very pleased to announce the release of Vexlio for macOS! We had great discussion and feedback from the HN community with the initial release (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14553551), so I hope you are as excited as I am for macOS availability. Happy to answer any questions!

Is it possible to attach id's and other custom attributes to shapes and have them preserved when exporting to SVG ? This would make the output a lot easier to use in downstream applications.

Currently, there's no mechanism to do that. However, I'm intrigued -- can you explain more about the use case you're thinking of?

We use SVG diagrams as the basis of numerous displays in our system. From basic navigation controls (we draw a 'curated' subset of a complex hierarchy) to some relatively static dashboards. We often want to enrich those diagrams to add basic interactivity (do something when particular section is clicked, modify the style of elements based upon an external property etc). This job s made far simpler if we can add additional data to the nodes in the diagram itself. Visio sort of supports it through custom properties but they are clunky to use and parse.

At first glance (on a phone too) this seems like a competitor for OmniGraffle. Can someone confirm that's a fair comparison?

And bought :)

Now Linux please! This would be a killer app

Thanks :-)! I'll be keeping people posted on a Linux version.

How are the LaTeX equations rendered ? Can we use full local LaTeX ? Can we customize the preamble ? Can we use custom fonts?

Vexlio comes with a minimal LaTeX bundle that is used to render the equations. The input you give in the edit window is automatically placed between $ signs to enter math mode. Currently the preamble is not customizable but you are not the only person to request this.

Right now there is no "official" way to use a local LaTeX installation, although that may become possible in the future. An untested workaround might be to symlink the "tex.install" directory in the Vexlio.app bundle to your local LaTeX installation. Please note I have not ever tested this and things may break.

PS: Any other questions in case I don't see them on this thread can be directed to the email address in my HN profile.

Site is unavailable for now :/

Hmm, it seems to be working on my end -- hopefully the issue clears up for you.

OK, thanks for the feedback

Great app, really usable!

Thanks -- I'm glad you like it!

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