Show HN: Turn indented text into mind maps • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Turn indented text into mind maps

#101

Post by mncharity » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 12:33 PM UTC

disconcision wrote: post #76

mncharity wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the nodes constantly rearranging and floating around Sigh. So there's like three decades of research on interactive graph layout stability. And almost none of it has become available as code. Much of graph layout is like that. Perhaps VR/AR will finally create sufficient incentive to make it more accessible.

Any suggestions on where in the literature to get started if I wanted to play around with different graph layout algorithms?

> Any suggestions on where in the literature to get started

On stable layouts for user mental map preservation with interactive dynamic graphs? I'm sorry, not really.

Avoid depending on a mental map with tasks that permit that (eg by using task-specific highlighting). Increase graph layout stability (eg by nested layouts). Simplify visual tracking (eg colored groups). ... Sorry - not my field.

Re: Show HN: Turn indented text into mind maps

#102

Post by mncharity » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 12:59 PM UTC

Kinrany wrote: post #100

disconcision wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any suggestions on where in the literature to get started if I wanted to play around with different graph layout algorithms?

I'm also interested, writing my own graph editor as a side project.

Let's see, a few very quick and crufty random thoughts... There are a great many open source graph programs available to be played with - which might contribute inspiration. And "sometimes much more easy to get working" images and videos of them. For surfing literature, I mostly use google scholar and scihub. Blog posts seem part of how the software dev community is educating itself and advancing, so perhaps do a post at some point. Perhaps approach the project like "writing a renderer" - something useful for learning computer graphics, without the expectation that it will escape the zombie fate of most graph libraries. Writing and posting a d3 example isn't hard, and might inspire others. ... Good luck.

Re: Show HN: Turn indented text into mind maps

#103

Post by mncharity » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 1:17 PM UTC

jcora wrote: post #78

mncharity wrote: post #67

I started something similar, but it's been gathering dust lately. FWIW, some differences were: Graph instead of tree. I'm rather baffled by the popularity of mindmaps. Even on paper, I do cyclic graphs of typed nodes and links. So the end of text lines could optionally contain link targets, node types, and "use this link type for these children". Outline mode for text. Mirrored in the graph. 3D graph. I'm mostly inte…

Hey this sounds very interesting! Is it open source / where can I read more?

> Is it open source / where can I read more?

It's just toy fragments at present. Using an idiosyncratic format. And a Windows MR HMD (for resolution), on linux(!), with three.js-but-not-WebVR (for resolution), and React, and emacs ... so in its current form, market size seems order-1. Low order one, since even I don't use it.

One might pull together something simpler for people to play with. Maybe preprocessed yaml. Just a browser window. Simple three.js. ... But I haven't.

What aspects of it sounded interesting? I'd been thinking of it as a niche itch-scratch type project.