Products · Product
PlantUML
Raised as a usability problem by 9 people on Hacker News over 9 years (2018–2026), in 8 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Automatic layout moves all elements, so small additions ruin finished diagramsUnreviewed
20182026- Auto-layout arranges diagrams poorly and cannot be finely rearranged2023-06-15
- Automatic layout repositions all elements, so small additions ruin finished complex diagrams2021-04-29
- Diagrams become hard to manage when they grow large, breaking the separation of semantics and presentation2021-03-01
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 9 complaints
- Hours spent tweaking relation directions to coax the layout into the desired shape2026-09-27
- Auto-layout arranges diagrams poorly and cannot be finely rearranged2023-06-15
- Emits useless diagnostics and its language is full of special cases, making it hard to use2022-05-31
- Automatic layout repositions all elements, so small additions ruin finished complex diagrams2021-04-29
- Layout is very difficult to customize and styling is finicky2021-04-25
- Diagrams become hard to manage when they grow large, breaking the separation of semantics and presentation2021-03-01
- Diagram rendering takes seconds, not the instant preview the user wants2019-05-08
- Layout engine consumes most time on anything beyond simple diagrams, and manual positioning is unreliable2018-08-29
- Adding one item makes all diagram items shift to new positions2018-08-29