Experienced Devs

3954 readers

1 users here now

A community for discussion amongst professional software developers.

Posts should be relevant to those well into their careers.

For those looking to break into the industry, are hustling for their first job, or have just started their career and are looking for advice, check out:

Logo base by Delapouite under CC BY 3.0 with modifications to add a gradient

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

snowe

jmk1ng

drewsiferr

Does anyone use C4 model for visualizing software architecture (self.experienced_devs)

submitted 1 year ago by canpolat to c/experienced_devs

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

We are considering using C4 for our architecture diagrams. Many diagramming tools (including Structurizr which was developed specifically for it) support C4. I wonder if there are others that use it and I would like to hear your experiences.

My initial assessment is as follows:

Pros

Diagram as code is a great way to keep things open to change.
It allows for better versioning
It enforces semantics into the diagrams. Instead of just thinking in terms of boxes and arrows, one need to dig deeper

Cons

It has a relative steep learning curve (one needs to study the DSL even though the end result is just boxes and arrows)
The tooling is not perfect. One needs to run a docker container to be able to navigate within the diagram (solution: there is also a SaaS offering)
Its view of architecture is somewhat limiting. It doesn't seem to be catered for augmenting the diagrams with other forms of diagrams (flowcharts, etc.) or text.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] truthy 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've used C4 in different ways.

Using Structurizr Lite (docker): I do really like the "as code" aspect. The DSL is okay, the documentation of it not so much. But in the end, the tooling is too limited, and I've never come to terms with it. The diagrams becomes very locked in, and are cumbersome to export.

I'm not a fan of integrating SaaS solutions into the documentation workflow, but would really suggest that in favor of the Lite offering. Although I haven't used it.

Using C4 with ordinary tools: What I've come to use more, is using the conepts (and templates when available) with other, non-specialized tools. With Miro for example (there are templates). While not as cool as the "as code" way, it's an nice and accessible way of visualizing software systems.

[–] canpolat 1 points 1 year ago

I have been using Mermaid for some time. I really like it since there are many systems that support Mermaid syntax. But it's a general tool and doesn't have the benefits of a "framework" Will give Structrz (Lite) a shot, but not being able to embed is an issue.