For some time now, I’ve been trying to develop the habit of not just reading great posts, but writing them too. Many of those I read emphasize the importance of sharing knowledge — and that’s what I’m picking up again in this post.
A new web service recently launched that reinforces this idea of collaborative technical content: yUML.
If you’ve never heard of it: yUML is an online tool that lets you generate UML diagrams directly from plain text. It’s a game changer for anyone writing about software design and wanting to illustrate ideas without heavy tools.
Context: UML on This Blog
If you landed here out of curiosity, you may want to read my previous post first:
👉 UML – Introduction with Mini-Scenarios
In that post, I explored use case and class diagrams to model real-life situations like online classifieds or lottery pools. With yUML, the goal is to make those visualizations even simpler, directly embedded in your content.
Example 1: Class Diagram
[Customer]1-0..*[Order]
[Order]<>-1[Payment]
Visualization:
This diagram shows:
- One customer can have zero or many orders.
- Each order has exactly one payment with aggregation (strong relationship).
Example 2: Use Case Diagram
[Customer]-(Browse Products)
[Customer]-(Place Order)
[Customer]-(Cancel Order)
Visualization:
This represents the main actions a customer can perform in a simple order management system.
Example 3: Activity Diagram
(start)->(Validate Info)->(Create Account)->(Send Email)->(end)
Visualization:
A basic registration workflow in activity format.
Why Use yUML?
- It lets you embed real diagrams in blogs, markdown files, or presentations.
- You write plain text, and the tool renders a clean visual.
- Perfect for incremental explanation, no need to export or upload images manually.
Final Thoughts
More than a tool tip, this post is an invitation: if you have something worth sharing, make it visual. Diagrams like the ones in my UML introduction post can now be published with just a few lines of text using yUML.
Whether you’re designing, writing, or simply exploring — write, share, and draw. Knowledge grows when it’s diagrammed.