Creating suitable diagrams for technical and scientific publications is challenging and time-consuming, as manual control over the layout is required to communicate information effectively. Existing diagramming tools usually allow modeling the diagrams via a textual domain-specific language (DSL) that can be rendered and auto-layouted or via a graphical editor. While auto-layout is fast, the results are often not satisfying for most publications. However, graphical editors are time-consuming to create large diagrams. The blended or hybrid modeling concept enables creating diagrams efficiently using a DSL and editing the rendered diagram via the graphical editor for fine-tuning. However, hybrid modeling editors are limited to individual diagram types and do not save the layout and style information in the textual description. Therefore, we propose HyLiMo, a hybrid live-synchronized modular diagramming editor. In HyLiMo, diagrams are created using an internal DSL and live synchronized with an interactive graphical editor for the rendered diagram, allowing a straightforward layout and style change, which is stored in the DSL code. HyLiMo is independent of specific diagram types, but we offer specific functionality for UML class diagrams. Using the language server protocol, we implement it as a web app and IDE extension. The results of our user study indicate that such an approach enables fast and precise diagramming.

翻译：为技术及科学出版物创建合适的图表具有挑战性且耗时，因为需要手动控制布局以有效传达信息。现有图表工具通常允许通过可渲染并自动布局的文本领域特定语言（DSL）或图形编辑器对图表进行建模。虽然自动布局速度快，但多数出版物对其结果往往不满意。然而，使用图形编辑器创建大型图表耗时颇多。混合建模概念允许通过DSL高效创建图表，并通过图形编辑器对渲染后的图表进行微调。然而，现有混合建模编辑器局限于特定图表类型，且未将布局和样式信息保存在文本描述中。为此，我们提出HyLiMo——一种混合式实时同步模块化图表编辑器。在HyLiMo中，图表通过内部DSL创建，并与渲染图表的交互式图形编辑器实时同步，支持直接修改布局和样式，这些修改将存储在DSL代码中。HyLiMo不限于特定图表类型，但我们为UML类图提供了专门功能。通过语言服务器协议，我们将其实现为Web应用和IDE扩展。用户研究结果表明，该方法可实现快速且精准的图表绘制。