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Re: [Monotone-devel] Ancestry Graph
From: |
Brian Campbell |
Subject: |
Re: [Monotone-devel] Ancestry Graph |
Date: |
Fri, 20 Aug 2004 17:01:57 -0400 |
On Aug 19, 2004, at 9:14 PM, Phil de Joux wrote:
What about storing xml then xslt can be used to transform the format?
Well, if we're going to do this, then maybe we should just use GXL
<http://www.gupro.de/GXL/> There are already tools included with
Graphviz to convert GXL to DOT format. I don't really like XML, because
it's needlessly verbose and a pain to actually parse correctly, but if
we're going to go with a tool neutral XML format, we should probably go
with GXL.
OK, so at this point, it looks like we have a few options:
1) Output to GXL format, use XSLT and converters to convert to the
format of our favorite (or least disliked) graph layout software.
2) Output in an ad-hoc format, and have a program that converts it to
other formats
3) Output in the format of (a) questionable, unmaintained, obfuscated
software distributed under the GPL or (b) working, maintained software
distributed under a non-free (but almost free) licence
4) Allow people to chose between several different output formats with
a command line switch, and support a few of the most popular (probably
GDL (vcg) and DOT)
5) Just give up and write our own graph layout software
Then, if we chose either 3 or 4, we also have the choice of
1) Output a fixed set of information about nodes
2) Add command line switches to select information include
in/formatting of nodes
One important thing to note is that outputting in DOT format does not
necessarily tie you to Graphviz. I know of at least one other
(commercial) tool that can use DOT files. I guess the options I would
prefer, all things considered, would be either GXL, or letting people
chose between formats and choose what information and formatting to
include using command line switches. GXL would mean that we can use
tools that are already available for manipulating graphs, while having
it all built in would reduce our dependencies on external programs as
much as possible.
Just so you know where I'm coming from, the reason I'm not happy with
the current situation is that I want to be able to write a monotone web
interface, and allow you to select revisions based on an image map of
the ancestry tree. Graphviz supports rendering to PNGs and outputting
image maps, while xvcg doesn't (as far as I can tell). Also, we use
Windows where I work, and I'd like for people to be able to get
ancestry visualizations on their own without having to install a full
Cygwin with X11 just to run a graph visualizer. And, I still have not
managed to download a copy of xvcg, uglified or not. It sounds like,
from some mail to mailings lists I've found, that the author is willing
to release the source code in non-uglified form, but is unclear of the
legal implications, since a company called aiSee now owns the rights to
it.
- [Monotone-devel] Ancestry Graph, Brian Campbell, 2004/08/19
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Ancestry Graph, Florian Weimer, 2004/08/19
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Ancestry Graph, Brian Campbell, 2004/08/19
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Ancestry Graph, Phil de Joux, 2004/08/19
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Ancestry Graph,
Brian Campbell <=
- [Monotone-devel] source for vcg (was Re: Ancestry Graph), Bruce Stephens, 2004/08/20
- Re: [Monotone-devel] Ancestry Graph, Asger Ottar Alstrup, 2004/08/21
- [Monotone-devel] Re: Ancestry Graph, graydon hoare, 2004/08/21
- [Monotone-devel] Re: Ancestry Graph, Bruce Stephens, 2004/08/21
- [Monotone-devel] Drawing graphs (was Re: Ancestry Graph), Bruce Stephens, 2004/08/22
- [Monotone-devel] Re: Drawing graphs (was Re: Ancestry Graph), Bruce Stephens, 2004/08/22
Re: [Monotone-devel] Ancestry Graph, Matt Johnston, 2004/08/20