The Most Powerful Weapon in the Galaxy or Grown-Up Sequence Diagram Automation

Doc as Code is a popular and evolving trend now. Paired with PlantUML, it has provided system analysts with an IDE that automates routine tasks, version control systems and collaborative diagram editing.

However, there is a nuance. Creating sequence diagrams in PlantUML, especially when aiming to reuse them in new artifacts, often turns into a tedious copy-and-paste routine. Autonumbering, one of the most popular and powerful tools under the hood, has become its greatest vulnerability. Changes to the original diagram necessitate updating all artifacts referencing it. The silver bullet, the most powerful weapon in the galaxy, crumbles under the glowing squares and diamonds of Junior Skywalker's toolkit. Three times over.

So, what is the problem? Is it the inadequacy of technology in the face of the notorious Force, or its weak application?

In my talk, I will discuss the PlantUML preprocessor as well as my custom library for automating the creation of sequence diagrams.