[graphviz]

Random thoughts:

Sketching backed by automated cleanup can be good for entering small diagrams. There used to be an iOS app based on graphviz: http://instaviz.com

Constraint-based interactive layout may be underinvested, as a consequence of too many disappointments and false starts in the 1980s.

LLMs seem ill-suited to solving the optimization of combinatorial and geometric constraints and objectives required for good diagram layout. Overall, one has to admire the directness and simplicity of mermaid. Also, it would be great to someday see a practical tool with the quality and generality of the ultra-compact grid layout prototype from the Monash group, https://ialab.it.monash.edu/~dwyer/papers/gridlayout2015.pdf (2015!!)

[ttd]

Oh wow, thank you for linking that paper. I've been working an interactive tool for a while and have been musing on new constraint and layout types to add. Anecdotally it seems a lot of mainstream graph layout algorithms work well for small to mediumish complexity inputs, but then quickly start generating visual spaghetti. So this looks incredibly apropos for me.

[relaxing]

App is unavailable in the US :(

[teleforce]

Thanks for link to the Monash's paper.

>LLMs seem ill-suited to solving the optimization of combinatorial and geometric constraints and objectives required for good diagram layout.

I think this is where LLM distance NLP cousin can be of help namely CUE since fundamentally it's based on feature structure from the deterministic approach of NLP unlike LLM that's stochastic NLP [1],[2],[3].

Based on the Monash's paper, Constraint Programming (CP) is one of the popular approaches that's being used for the automatic grid layout.

Since CUE is a constraint configuration language belong to CP, and its NLP background should make it easier and seamless to integrate with LLM. If someone somehow can crack this then it will be a new generation LLM that can perform good and accurate diagramming via prompts and it will be a boon for the architect, designer and engineer. Talking about engineer, if this approach can also be used for IC layout design (analog and digital) not only for diagrams, it will easily disrupt the multi-billion dollars industry for the very expensive software for IC design and man powers.

I hope I'm not getting ahead of myself, but ultimately this combo can probably solve the "holy grails" problem mentioned towards the end of the paper's conclusions regarding layout model that somehow incorporates routing in a way that is efficiently solvable to optimality. After all some people in computer science consider CP as "holy grails" of programming [4].

Please someone somehow make a start up, or any existing YC startup like JITX (Hi Patrick) can look into this potential fruitful endeavor of hybrid LLM combo for automated IC design [5].

Perhaps your random thoughts are not so random but deterministic non-random in nature, pardon the pun.

[1] Cue – A language for defining, generating, and validating data:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20847943

[2] Feature structure:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_structure

[3] The Logic of CUE:

https://cuelang.org/docs/concept/the-logic-of-cue/

[4] Solving Combinatorial Optimization Problems with Constraint Programming and OscaR [video]:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=opXBR00z_QM

[5] JITX: Automatic circuit board design:

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/jitx