Most people see a ‘picture’ as a static thing. For the Textsmith, a picture is just another form of a sentence. When we use tools like Mermaid, PlantUML, or Gnuplot, we are treating visuals with the same respect we treat our code.
The Inclusive Eye
For those of us using screen readers like Orca, a traditional chart is a wall. But a chart defined in Mermaid is a bridge. Because the source is text, I can read the relationships, the nodes, and the data points. I don’t need ‘Alt-Text’—the code is the description.
The Long-Term Vision
Twenty years from now, a .pptx or a .psd file might be unreadable by modern software. But a .txt file containing the logic for a graph will always be readable. By ‘coding’ our visuals, we are ensuring they survive the march of time.
Forged in the terminal. Refined under the anvil.