Hacker News Reader

Comment by akavel | Hacker News Reader

And pic was slightly extended and modernized by the SQLite author(s?) to become https://pikchr.org, for use in SQLite docs. (All the SQL syntax diagrams are drawn with pikchr, IIUC.)

If you want to embed pikchr SVGs in your statically generated HTML content, you may find https://soupault.app/ useful.

(Not affiliated with either, fan of both.)

View on HN

Thank you for the link to pikchr--anything by the SQLite folks is something to check out.

Not having a diamond object-class for decision seems to be a large miss. [0] Also, unlike Mermaid [1], three downward arrows to boxes aren't spaced from one another, the boxes wind up overwriting one another. This gives pikchr a procedural/syntactical feel rather than an object/semantic one.

0. https://pikchr.org/home/doc/trunk/doc/grammar.md

1. https://github.blog/2022-02-14-include-diagrams-markdown-fil...

pikchr live demo: https://pikchr.org/home/pikchrshow

Mermaid live demo: https://mermaid-js.github.io/mermaid-live-editor/

  > for use in SQLite docs

Examples of output, because I too was curious:

https://www.sqlite.org/lang_createtable.html

https://www.sqlite.org/atomiccommit.html

> https://www.sqlite.org/lang_createtable.html

Here's what the source looks like: https://www2.sqlite.org/cgi/docsrc/blame?filename=art/syntax...

> https://www.sqlite.org/atomiccommit.html

These are actually just GIFs and it's unclear how they're generated. https://www2.sqlite.org/cgi/docsrc/file?name=images/ac/commi...

I made a few pikchr diagrams and liked the experience, though it would be good if there was a lossless WSYWIG editor that could create and edit them for quick and dirty creation.

There was a Changelog podcast episode with Richard Hipp (sqlite author) where he threw out the great idea that it would be nice if there were renderers in popular markdown engines that could display inline pikchr blocks. https://changelog.com/podcast/454

More examples of what is possible are on the linked pikchr page: https://pikchr.org/home/doc/trunk/doc/examples.md

You can also use a pandoc filter to turn code blocks with Pikchr code into inline images.

https://code.jboy.space/pikchr-filter/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com