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You can define nodes and edges on the same line in graphviz. Here is an example: https://viz-js.com/?dot=ZGlncmFwaCB7CiAgYSAtPiBiIC0-IGMgLT4g... Of course depending on complexity of graph you might want to do it separately. A potentially much bigger difference in verbosity comes from graphviz being a general purpose graph drawing software, while mermaid is more of a software for drawing software development related diagrams (not just graphs and tables). This is well reflected by the fact that in graphviz the diagram types are categorized by layout engine (hierarchical drawing, spring model, force directed placement, circular layout,...), but in Mermaid they are categorized by what data the diagram represents (flowchart, sequence diagram, class diagram, state diagram, entity relationship diagram, gant diagram). You can draw many of those types of diagrams in Graphviz but you will have to potentially do a lot more of reinventing the wheel and low level manual formatting (arrow and node shapes, line style, etc.), while Mermaid documentation uses more of diagram specific terms like cardinality, visibility(public, private, ...) and many others. That's like comparing Excel with purpose built accounting software or an inventory management system. Excel might be a lot more flexible, but if the usecase specific software matches your needs it can be a lot more streamlined and less error prone. So the conclusions will very much depend on your use case. If you are trying to draw one of the standard software engineering diagrams as part of design documentation, Mermaid can be great. For less formal design diagrams or quickly visualizing the state of some algorithm it's much more even playing field. |