You may have heard about or experienced the value of sequence diagrams. In this article, I’ll introduce sequence diagrams and describe what they are good for. I’ll also give you a tour of the features of sequence diagrams and explain how to use each feature to interpret the behavior of your code. Then I’ll show how AppMap makes sequence diagrams even better by (a) generating diagrams from your running code and (b) making diagrams fully interactive.
What Is a Sequence Diagram?
Sequence diagrams are a type of Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram that shows the interactions between different components or objects in a system over time. They show the flow of messages and the order in which these messages are exchanged. They are great for understanding how code works because they show enough detail to communicate the key elements of code behavior while being compact enough to fit a lot of information onto a single page.