  The LHC has brought much new information on total, elastic and diffractive
cross sections, which is not always in agreement with extrapolations from lower
energies. The default framework in the Pythia event generator is one case in
point. In this article we study and implement two recent models, as more
realistic alternatives. Both describe total and elastic cross sections, whereas
one also includes single diffraction. Noting some issues at high energies, a
variant of the latter is proposed, and extended also to double and central
diffraction. Further, the experimental definition of diffraction is based on
the presence of rapidity gaps, which however also could be caused by colour
reconnection in nondiffractive events, a phenomenon that is studied in the
context of a specific model. Throughout comparisons with LHC and other data are
presented.
