tikz-pgf
I have gone through the comprehensive symbols in LaTeX that provides some animals icons but not enough for fun documents. One of my math questions requires the illustration as follows, which is a repeated list of ducks and turtles:
Could you help to draw these animals using Tikz?
You can use stacked material inside D by simply using \shortstack{$\mathbf0$\\a1}. There is no need to use TeX lower-level primitives for that.
Also the node character N also takes a content if used with { } and also options using [ ], i.e. N[<options>]{<content>}, so you can place text into the timing diagram directly, without extracode. By default nodes are set using the coordinate shape, you need to use the rectangle option to allow for a visible content.
I personally use dotted or dashed lines (something like ;[dashed] <chars>;) to draw discontinuities.
BTW, allowing text content for other characters as well is on my long-term TODO list.
Here a way you can implement such a diagram using dotted lines and direct node content. I'm moving the node position manually to get the correct vertical position.
\documentclass[convert=png]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz-timing}
\usetikztiminglibrary{nicetabs} % a bit strange with \Huge; use belowrulesep to adjust
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{type1cm} % to avoid "LaTeX Font Warning: Font shape `OML/cmm/m/it' in size <2> not available"; tlmgr install type1cm
\usepackage{helvet}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikztimingtable}[%
timing/dslope=0.1,
timing/name/.style={font=\sffamily\scriptsize},
timing/d/text/.style={font=\sffamily\tiny},
grayz/.style={timing/z/.append style={gray}},
timing/n/.style={rectangle},
timing/metachar={{K}[2]{#1l !{++(0,+.5\yunit)} N[rectangle,scale=.3]{\shortstack{$\mathbf 0$\\(#2)}} !{++(0,-.5\yunit)} #1l}},
timing/metachar={{J}[2]{#1h !{++(0,-.5\yunit)} N[rectangle,scale=.3]{\shortstack{$\mathbf 1$\\(#2)}} !{++(0,+.5\yunit)} #1h}},
]
Sig1 & Z H K{a1} K{2} J{3} ;[gray] D;[dotted,gray] D;[gray] D; J{$N_a$} Z \\
Sig2 & Z H J{1} J{1} K{3} ;[grayz] Z;[dotted,grayz] Z;[grayz] Z; K{$N_b$} Z \\
\extracode
% foreground:
\tablerules
\tablegrid[black!25]
\end{tikztimingtable}
\end{document}
I'm not sure if it's answering all your questions, but I think the following (although not perfect) shows some ways in which your code could be simplified. I think there will always be some manual adjustment involved though (e.g., setting appropriate inner sep).
\documentclass[tikz,border=0.125cm]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.geometric}
\begin{document}
\tikzset{%
set color/.style={
fill=#1,
draw=#1!50!black
},
every number/.style={
text=white,
rounded corners=0.125cm,
font=\fontfamily{pzc}\selectfont,
text width=3ex,
align=center,
scale=2
},
every prime number/.style={
shape=diamond,
set color=blue!70!black,
inner sep=0.25ex,
},
every even number/.style={
shape=circle,
set color=red!70!black,
inner sep=0.5ex
},
every odd number/.style={
shape=regular polygon,
regular polygon sides=3,
set color=green!70!black,
inner sep=-0.375ex
},
number 1/.style={
shape=star,
set color=green!50!blue,
inner sep=-.25ex
}
}%
\begin{tikzpicture}[x=2cm, y=2cm]
\foreach \n [evaluate={%
\x=mod(\n-1,10);
\y=floor((\n-1)/10);
\p=isprime(\n);
\e=mod(\n,2)==0;
\style=(\p || \n==2) ? "prime" : (\e ? "even" : "odd");}] in {1,...,100}
\node [every number/.try, every \style\space number/.try, number \n/.try]
at (\x,\y) {\n};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
Best Answer
There's already code on the site for drawing ducks. Hence, only the turtle remains to be done. I hope turtles are sufficiently like tortoises for a tortoise to pass muster:
Adjust the colours to your taste.