Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site druxv.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!hogpc!drutx!druxv!neal From: neal@druxv.UUCP Newsgroups: net.math,net.news.map,net.ai,net.graphics,net.lsi Subject: viewing complex interrelations graphically Message-ID: <1278@druxv.UUCP> Date: Wed, 18-Jan-84 13:05:05 EST Article-I.D.: druxv.1278 Posted: Wed Jan 18 13:05:05 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 7-Feb-84 11:08:17 EST Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Denver Lines: 26 Say you want to understand a really complicated program, and you have the cross-reference information on it (who calls who) and a high-quality graphics terminal. How can you present that information in a useful way? This is most worthwhile, of course, when the amount of information is very large (hundreds of routines, not very well modularized). What theoretical and/or practical algorithms exist to lay out a graph which can be displayed on the terminal? I'd be interested in both a nice "global" view of the structure, and a reasonable "local" display once I had "zoomed in" on a particular node (a subroutine, in this example). It would also be neat to try to single out just the "important" or "core" nodes to get an overall perspective first. I suspect that the "right" way of doing this would involve an N-P complete algorithm. All I want, though, is a good guess, and since I'm dealing with "real" data, I suspect that some clever heuristics might provide a good approximation in short order. I'm not even sure what this branch of knowledge might be classified as. Am I looking for "planar graph" algorithms? Do VLSI people get into this stuff? If I were to search through journals, what journals/topics would I look for? Many thanks for any info! (surely I'll find at least a few PhD's working on this....) -Neal McBurnett, ihnp4!druxv!neal