Automatically Create Sequence Diagrams from DETT traces

[Taggart]

Basically what I am looking for is something similar to this (except for DQMH)

https://forums.ni.com/t5/Actor-Framework-Documents/Actor-Framework-Sequence-Diagram-Parser/ta-p/3536...

It allows you to generate a trace with DETT and then use that as the basis for a sequence diagram.

A couple use cases:

1. You inherit a project that doesn't have any sequence diagrams. It would be nice to run this and see which modules launch which and how they communicate.

2. Troubleshooting - Things are supposed to happen in a certain order, but aren't working

3. Generating documentation - Let's say you didn't start by writing a sequence diagram, but now want to document the order things happen in.

I think this compliments the static diagrams in Anti-doc. Anti-doc clearly shows who sends broadcasts/requests to who, but doesn't show anything about timing.

@Olivier I think this would be a cool addition to Anti-Doc. It obviously couldn't generate the traces, but if you had a few, you could probably figure out how to point to them and include them. And maybe Anti-doc doesn't even run the tool on the traces. Maybe you run that seperately and then have antidoc render the resulting plant uml?

[Olivier-JOURDAN]

@Taggart I like the idea for Antidoc. I feel it's more an Anitdoc thing than a DQMH one. By the way, I encourage you to add an issue to the Antidoc project 😉

That being said, I have one question: how do you think the broadcast events should be treated? I feel that in many situations it would overcrowd the sequence diagram if all of them are represented.

[Olivier-JOURDAN]

@Taggart From my previous comment, I'd add that if we want to draw the sequence in real-time it could be something the consortium can dive into (and we already have things working in that way and it could be used to improve Antidoc output...).

Just saying 😏

[Taggart]

Added an issue here. Doesn't address drawing it in real-time. 

https://gitlab.com/wovalab/open-source/labview-doc-generator/-/issues/164

[Olivier-JOURDAN]

Speaking of drawing a sequence diagram in real-time, we demoed a tool during the GLA summit --> https://youtu.be/2kj7YI-a_xg?t=2697 that could do the job.

We don't know when this tool will be public.

[Olivier-JOURDAN]

So far, I'm declining your suggestion because, in any case, if a tool is going to be released in the future, it will not be part of the framework itself.

@Taggart, thank you again for your help and your time writing down this suggestion.