Software/Webapp for creating computer science diagrams

Question

What are some good programs or web-based applications that can be used (preferrably (but not necessarily) for free) to create diagrams for computer science articles or dissertations?

Particularly, I'm looking to represent data structures such as stacks, linked lists, trees, etc..

Any ideas?

Answer 1

• Gliffy should work for you. Many of the student's in my class used it and it worked out great.
• Microsoft Visio: Not web based, but quite powerful
• Dia: Open source diagramming tool

Answer 2

OmniGraffle

Answer 3

For sequence diagrams try: http://websequencediagrams.com/

Answer 4

xfig

Answer 5

I don't know what kind of diagrams you mean, but I've always found wolframalpha useful.

Answer 6

I've also found PowerPoint to do a surprisingly good job

Answer 7

If you are writing your article or dissertation in LaTeX, have a look at the TikZ package. It allows you to make the type of diagrams usually required in computer science with a few, well-readable commands.

• Here are some examples,
• here is the project page (although it might already be included in your TeX distribution) and
• here is the manual.