RE: [K3d-development] Preventing infinite loops in the DAG

[Shead, T. <ts...@sa...>]

> The second alternative was proposed a loooooong time ago by=20
> our good friend and number one fan Ed Millard, who suggested=20
> going with a "Directed Graph" that allows for circular loops.=20
>  At the time it wasn't interesting to me, since allowing=20
> feedback loops is arguably a feature of limited value.  What=20
> I didn't think of at the time, is that handling loops=20
> dynamically may be easier to code, and is definitely less=20
> intrusive on the API.
>=20
> So, a "heads up" that I'm looking into it.

Gang:

I've committed some changes to CVS that put us well on the way to having
a "Directed Graph" instead of a "Directed Acyclic Graph".  At the moment
it's still possible to construct a graph that can enter an infinite
loop, but the current set of changes eliminate the majority of problem
cases.  As an example, you can connect a property to itself, or loop
property A-to-B-and-back-to-A without causing any harm - there's no
value to doing either, of course, but you won't lose your data.  Fixing
the remaining cases will be a little more time-consuming, but completely
straightforward.

Cheers,
Tim