[topicmapmail] Visualisation of Topic Maps (the attempt of a summary)

[Andreas Fleck]

Hi Murray,

you“re right, "dead" is the wrong word and i really can“t tell whether
TouchGraph is not in development any longer.

I“ve seen it being used at various applications and so it seems to be really
common. I was just thinking that it might be useful to incorporate the date
of the last "offical" version into the summary and my overhasty labeling as
dead is definitely wrong.

Personally i think of TouchGaph being really good, that“s why I am trying to
develop with it.
And for sure, I wish Alex Shapiro all the best for his future work with
touchgraph.

Greetings
Andreas





> --- Ursprüngliche Nachricht ---
> Von: "M.Altheim" <M.Altheim@open.ac.uk>
> An: Andreas Fleck <AndreasFleck@gmx.net>, topicmapmail
> <topicmapmail@infoloom.com>
> Betreff: RE: [topicmapmail] Visualisation of Topic Maps (the attempt of a
> summary)
> Datum: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 13:24:10 +0100
> 
> Andreas,
> 
> I can only suggest that a project being "dead" because it hasn't
> had any active code development in awhile is perhaps not very
> accurate. It doesn't take into account the possibility that the
> project is considered finished, or at least adequate to support
> its intended audience. It may also be that the developer is using
> the code in commercial projects that he/she is being paid for, so
> the status of a project is not always evident. I would suggest
> asking the developer first before judging its status -- not that
> you're alone -- SourceForge judges a project dead if it (SF) hasn't
> seen activity, which isn't necessarily a good metric either. But
> it's the same problem: lack of knowledge of the true status.
> 
> For example, TouchGraph hasn't had any significant code changes,
> but it keeps showing up in new projects all the time. I'm actively
> using it in my project, and I recently have seen several new 
> projects (like Visual Thesaurus) that use it. I believe Alex 
> Shapiro is trying to make a living using TouchGraph in his 
> consultancy. I don't think it's dead.
> 
> Murray
> 
> ......................................................................
> Murray Altheim                          http://www.altheim.com/murray/
> Strategic & Service Development 
> The Open University Library
> Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK
> 
>           Ils ont l'orteil de Bouc, & d'un Chevreil l'oreille,
>           La corne d'un Chamois, & la face vermeille
>           Comme un rouge Croissant: & dancent toute nuict
>           Dedans un carrefour, ou pres d'une eau qui bruict. 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: topicmapmail-admin@infoloom.com
> [mailto:topicmapmail-admin@infoloom.com]
> > On Behalf Of Andreas Fleck
> > Sent: 06 June 2005 13:13
> > To: topicmapmail@infoloom.com
> > Subject: [topicmapmail] Visualisation of Topic Maps (the attempt of a
> summary)
> > 
> > Hi everybody,
> > 
> > thanks for all your kind answers in my last ("Auto-Generating TMs out of
> > rel. DB") thread. I was unable to check my e-mails for the last couple
> of
> > days and on top of that, they are on another computer, so iĀ“ll answer
> the
> > questions raised in my other thread about Auto-Generating TMĀ“s out of
> > relational Databases in the next days (depending when i can access my
> other
> > computer). Sorry for that.
> > 
> > 
> > Now, as the other thread lost itĀ“s way somehow and was skipping to the
> > aspect of the "Visualization Of Topic Maps", i wanted to open a thread
> where
> > we might gather information about different Visualiztation technics/APIs
> for
> > Topic Maps and so forth.
> > As this seems to be a topic, which not only I am really interested in.
> > 
> > Maybe we can also keep an eye on the usability of the generated graphs,
> when
> > handling large topic maps.
> > 
> > I will work with the Touchgraph and maybe Hypergraph renderes in the
> next
> > time and can write my opinions on this, when i have finished.
> > 
> > 
> > Open Source Visualizations i know of at the moment (keep in mind that
> iĀ“m no
> > pro when it comes down to TMs, so this is just what i think of them, any
> > idea, criticism is highly appreciated):
> > 
> > 
> > --------------
> > Touch Graph:
> > --------------
> > http://touchgraph.sourceforge.net/
> > 
> > KNOWN IMPLEMENTATIONS: There are a number of different implementations
> > around (see link), i donĀ“t know how far these are based onto Topic
> Maps.
> > For topic maps there is the Java Stand Alone Application TMNav
> > (http://tm4j.org/tmnav.html), which relies onto the TM4J framework
> > (http://tm4j.org/), which is providing an implementation of the
> TouchGraph
> > for browsing Topic Maps
> > 
> > DEVELOPMENT STATUS: It looks like the project is mostly dead, judging
> from
> > the last release on sourceforge from the end of 2002
> > 
> > POTENTIAL: imho itĀ“s good at browsing TopicMaps as it is interactive.
> For a
> > bigger example of this one can have a look at the Google Browser
> implmeneted
> > with Touchgraph: http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html, it has
> good
> > options to parameterize the graph in a way you want it to look
> > 
> > DOWNSIDE: Not really developed any further, donĀ“t know how good it
> scales on
> > big graphs with lotĀ“s of topics, looks like no good documentation is
> > available, development mostly based onto extracting the knowledge from
> the
> > source files
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > --------------
> > HyperGraph:
> > --------------
> > http://hypergraph.sourceforge.net/
> > 
> > KNOWN IMPLEMENTATIONS: There are a number of different implementations
> > around (see link), i donĀ“t know how far these are based onto Topic
> Maps.
> > For topic maps there is the Java Stand Alone Application TMNav
> > (http://tm4j.org/tmnav.html), which relies onto the TM4J framework
> > (http://tm4j.org/), which is providing an implementation of the
> HyperGraph
> > for browsing Topic Maps
> > 
> > DEVELOPMENT STATUS: It looks like the project is still running, the last
> > release on sourceforge is from the end of 2004
> > 
> > POTENTIAL: good at browsing large TopicMaps, because of hyperbolic
> > visualization
> > 
> > DOWNSIDE: i donĀ“t know how good you can parameterize the graph for your
> own
> > needs
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > --------------
> > Prefuse
> > --------------
> > http://prefuse.sourceforge.net/
> > 
> > KNOWN IMPLEMENTATIONS: A couple of implementations are on the website
> (see
> > link), i donĀ“t know how far these are based onto Topic Maps.
> > 
> > DEVELOPMENT STATUS: The project is up and running, with the latest
> release
> > from April 2005
> > 
> > POTENTIAL: looks like lotĀ“s of different visualization options are
> possible,
> > the project aim is to develop highly interactive visualisations. I
> donĀ“t
> > know whether there is something similar to TouchGraph or HyperGraph
> already
> > out there.
> > 
> > DOWNSIDE: i donĀ“t know how much programming effort it takes to
> visualize a
> > Topic Map in a similar vein TouchGraph or Hypergraph does
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > --------------
> > Jung
> > --------------
> > http://jung.sourceforge.net/
> > 
> > KNOWN IMPLEMENTATIONS: A couple of implementations are on the website
> (see
> > link), i donĀ“t know how far these are based onto Topic Maps.
> > 
> > DEVELOPMENT STATUS: The project is up and running, with the latest
> release
> > from April 2005
> > 
> > POTENTIAL: looks like lotĀ“s of different visualization options are
> possible,
> > i am not sure whether one can configure this visualisation to make it
> > "browsable" like HyperGraph or TouchGraph or whehter this is more or
> less
> > "static".
> > 
> > DOWNSIDE: i donĀ“t know how much programming effort it takes to
> visualize a
> > Topic Map in a similar vein TouchGraph or Hypergraph does
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Maybe you are interested to share your opinions on Graph visualization,
> or
> > know of further Visualization techics.
> > IĀ“d love to hear what you have to say about this topic.
> > 
> > 
> > Greetings
> > Andreas
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > > --- UrsprĆ¼ngliche Nachricht ---
> > > Von: topicmapmail-request@infoloom.com
> > > An: andreasfleck@gmx.net
> > > Betreff: Welcome to the "topicmapmail" mailing list (Digest mode)
> > > Datum: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 05:44:01 -0400
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