Proposal: automatically color modules in package diagram

[DudeNr33]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe

I really like the possibility to generate package diagrams using pyreverse. However, a complete diagram can become very big and complex.
The currently just "black and white" output makes it hard to spot modules of the same package.
This is for example the package diagram for pylint itself:

Describe the solution you'd like

By coloring modules of the same package with the same color, it is much easier to spot what parts belong together:

Additional context

I also experimented with grouping modules of the same package together, but the result is not as clear:

To discuss is the best way to implement this. The image above was generated by automatically picking colors from a list based on the first two parts of the module name.
Possible alternatives/extensions would be:

• Let the user define the colors to use in the configuration file, instead of picking colors automatically
• Let the user define up to what depth he wants to distinguish subpackages

[Pierre-Sassoulas]

I like the colored solution, we could do it in two step with the configuration file for the color being a second step. I also like plantuml diagrams (it would permit to put the code into their package directly so they are already in well defined area) but this seem like a huge task.

[DudeNr33]

Yes, doing it in two steps is probably a good idea.

I'm not sure if I understood the comment regarding plantuml correctly @Pierre-Sassoulas . What do you mean by "putting the code into their package directly"? Do you want more than just an additional backend beside DOT and VCG?
But I also like the idea of using plantuml in the future, as this would also allow for new types of diagrams, like automatically generated sequence diagrams to visualize also dynamic interactions and not just static representations.
Plain Plantuml files are also more readable than DOT files.
But yes this would certainly be a bigger task.

[Pierre-Sassoulas]

I'm thinking of their class diagram, see:

@startuml

package "Classic Collections" #DDDDDD {
  Object <|-- ArrayList
}

package net.sourceforge.plantuml {
  Object <|-- Demo1
  Demo1 *- Demo2
}

@enduml

The class are already in their respective package and plantuml put them close visually so the color is easy to apply to the whole package. Maybe that's too huge of a step though and coloring the current one is easier/faster.

[DudeNr33]

Thanks for the example.
That would require more effort and thought. The diagram you copied also combines package and class relations into one diagram, which is currently not possible with pyreverse to my knowledge.
So I propose to create a new feature request for plantuml integration and focus on the existing backends for now.