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TouchGraphLinkBrowser
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A very cool utility for organizing hyperlinks by placing them into a visual network.
V1.03: http://www.touchgraph.com/browser/LinkBrowser.html An older version worth visiting for the sample data linking lots of sites dealing with graph based interfaces.
V1.20: http://www.touchgraph.com/newLB/TGLinkBrowser.html A newer version, works well for automatically generated files, but the manal editing interfaces are still awkward.
The TouchGraphLinkBrowser was created in answer to the huge linear lists of links that you see on some webpages. The reason such lists exist is because of the frustration that one encounters when trying to place the links into a conventional hierarchy. Putting the links into a hierarchy means splitting them up into groups. A hierarchy does not have the expressive power to say that in some sence two links belong in separate groups, but in another they belong together. Thus one must make the annoying decision of which equally valid grouping to go with. Another problem is that as more links are added, it might turn out that the chosen grouping becomes lopsided, while the alternate one would have divided the links more evenly, causing one to debate whether it's worth the trouble to rearrange the grouping.
An associative graph does not have these problems because all groupings are simultaneously supported. One can put links into named cattegories by creating central category nodes, or demonstrate that a relationship exists between two links by adding an edge directly between them. Another nice (in most cases) feature of using a graph is that it spreads across the whole screen, while a list normally stays aligned at the left margin.
What would really rock TouchGraphLinkBrowser is having the same kind of WIKI like editor for the nodes themselves. Change the behavior, icons, content etc. zum beispiel Right click>pop up>choose icon | edit text | edit link | edit behavior ( rollover | pop up)
For the WikiBrowser...wow, enable drag and drop from the text loaded into the left side browser on to the graph interface. The text automatically becomes an independent node, then the user could click/drag connections to that new node at will. For RecentChangesJunkies this could be a very cool little tool, to extract the phrase or comment from the post and spawn a new node of discussion that in turn is hyperlinked to the root subject and to the corresponding branches of the discussion. It would be a fantastic meleange of problem solving and discussion in a MindMap kindaway.
This type of interface could play a role in the PlanningGame? as well. The user would be able to determine the type of icon for the node...for example the sales guy, Jim, get a an UmlActor? icon. Jim calls his customers, which gets another UmlActor? icon but perhaps with a '*' to indicate many actors within the same group. These actors could be split out on to their own nodes at will. The association itself between the nodes describes the association...
I thinking of this again as a RefactoringTool? using the CodeNode idea...
I'm using TouchGraphLinkBrowser now and loving it! Easy to start! -- DennisDaniels
In my opinion the MindSetCsv? format should also get a standard for using in wiki systems. Here is the definition of this format: http://www.ms.lt/mindset.html#mindsetcsv Yes and what is the relation of this MindSetCsv? format to TouchGraphLinkBrowser you could ask? A MindSetCsv? format can easily be converted into the TouchGraphLinkBrowser XmlFormat? so you can immediately surf your whole wiki with this TGLinkBrowser? interface. --TonyArmani
CategoryInformationVisualization