Re: [Tm4j-developers] Graph presentation

[Jack P. <jac...@th...>]

It seems worth noting that jgraph uses a "spring" arranger, probably the 
same one that Alex started with.  At the same time, jgraph comes with an 
export to svg -- something we should have no matter which way we go.  Mind 
you, I'm not selling jgraph over touchgraph.  Just pointing out some 
differences.

Jack

At 10:20 AM 2/28/2002 +0000, Murray Altheim wrote:
>Kal Ahmed wrote:
>
>>At 09:22 27/02/2002 -0800, Jack Park wrote:
>>
>>>It may be that this group is familiar with 
>>>http://touchgraph.sourceforge.net. (Apache)
>>I have had a brief discussion with Alex Shapiro (developer of Touchgraph) 
>>about using it as a visualisation for a topic map in TM4J. Since that 
>>discussion I kind of got bogged down in 0.6.0 release stuff. But now that 
>>the TMNav application is back on the cards I will resume experimenting with it.
>
>
>I have a preliminary XTM-to-TouchGraph converter working, though it is
>missing a good deal of the topic map (such as occurrences and any sort
>of interactive features). As a display tool for topics, associations,
>and *some* of the scopes it works passably. But for now I won't be
>spending so much time on it as my Ph.D duties are calling louder. But
>perhaps working together on a Java API for XTM-in-TG I'd be happy to
>lend a hand.
>
>
>>>Another one I just discovered (though others may be familiar with it) is 
>>>http://jgraph.sourceforge.net (LGPL)
>>
>>>An interesting point about jGraph is that it exports to GXL (Graph 
>>>Exchange Language) http://www.gupro.de/GXL/
>>I hadn't realised that...interesting!
>>
>>>Which brings to mind an interesting set of issues.
>>>
>>>For instance: the world seems to be awash in ontology expression 
>>>languages, like DAML+OIL, OWL (just getting started), CG, RDF, XTM, and 
>>>so forth (assuming you'll allow me to group XTM into that cluster).
>>>
>>>One wonders if the persistence layer of any knowledge product ought not 
>>>to consist of something a bit more "universal" (whatever that means) 
>>>than XTM.  GXL comes to mind, and Murray Altheim seems to be heading in 
>>>that direction. It may be that the GooseWorks package is going in that 
>>>direction as well, but I'm not sure yet.
>>>
>>>This would imply that the next generation of TM4J could be a 
>>>wrapper/mapper for a GXL backside.  From the same backside, we could 
>>>wrap/map to Conceptual Graphs, DAML+OIL, OWL, and who knows what else.
>>That sounds like an interesting approach - in a way it is somewhat 
>>similar to what the DOM backend is intending to do - take some standard 
>>representation form with a standard API (in this case XTM in the DOM) and 
>>add the necessary processing layer to expose that as a topic map with 
>>TM4J APIs to it. I have toyed with the idea of a generic node-arc 
>>back-end for TM4J, but have decided recently to focus more on building up 
>>the front-end (with client apps, web-app frameworks, higher-level 
>>utilities, query languages and so on).
>
>
>I had a minor competition with Peter Becker last fall in developing an
>XML serialization of CGs, but have somewhat abandoned that after John
>Sowa took all of the development efforts back into the ANSI committee.
>I instead decided to look at how GXL could be used for this purpose,
>and that's when the light bulb went off -- it was an obvious choice for
>a common syntax. I've also written a TG-to-GXL converter in the process,
>then realized I wanted a more generalized approach.
>
>
>>>Your thoughts on the notion of going in the direction of a universal, 
>>>graph-theoretic backside with wrapper/mappers?
>>I think that there shouldn't be anything in the current TM4J back-end 
>>architecture that should prevent this from happening and I also think 
>>that it could be a very interesting thing to do. If it turns out that 
>>something in the way TM4J's backend architecture works prevents this from 
>>being possible then we should change that. To be honest, right now my 
>>focus is not on creating new backends, but I would certainly support 
>>anyone who wants to give it a go!
>
>
>A little healthy competition is a good thing I think, especially
>among friends. I'm hoping over the next few months to hitch up my
>TG toolkit to my Xindice DB so that Very Large Graphs (>100K nodes)
>can be displayed via locality (ie., n nodes from a selected node).
>I once for an experiment tried opening one of my ITIS topic maps
>and it took my machine down. Well, not completely, but you get the
>picture.
>
>Murray
>
>......................................................................
>Murray Altheim                         <mailto:m.altheim @ open.ac.uk>
>Knowledge Media Institute
>The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK
>
>      In the evening
>      The rice leaves in the garden
>      Rustle in the autumn wind
>      That blows through my reed hut.  -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu