I am aware of various latex packages (e.g., XYPic) that facilitate the creation of commutative diagrams in the context of latex documents. What I would like to ask though is whether there exists a stand-alone tool that creates these diagrams? An optimal tool would not require a huge number of libraries and supporting infrastructure that must be installed separately. Just a simple tool that creates commutative diagrams and, say, exports them to PNG/WMF etc. Does something like this exist?
To be clear, I am looking for special-purpose software that is dedicated to depicting commutative diagrams of the sort that one encounters in category theory, homological algebra, algebraic toplogy and so forth. I am not seeking a general-purpose chart drawing tool such as Visio, Powerpoint or other typical consumer-oriented application. It should be capable of correctly formatting and rendering math-specific symbols and character sets.
Best Answer
Dia can do this. The results won't be as good as with LaTeX + TikZ though. There are online LaTeX compilers that allow you to compile code including TikZ pictures. This way you can have the quality of LaTeX+TikZ without needing all of the tooling installed. If you concern is learning the language instead of output and you would prefer something with a GUI frontend then Dia is the only option I am familiar with (except for Visio and PowerPoint)