Computational Science Technical Note CSTN-061

Interactive Graph Algorithm Visualization and the GraViz Prototype

K.A.Hawick

Archived August 2008, Revised October 2010.

Abstract

Visualizing a graph of any complexity can be difficult, particularly if many details decorating both the vertex set and arc set are required to be rendered. A graph algorithm visualizing tool - GraViz - has been developed using Java and Java-Swing rendering technology. The design ideas and data structures used in GraViz are presented and some directions for future enhancement are discussed. A detailed discussion of the rendering model is given including: layering and drawing space issues; managing rendering complexity of detail; rendering transforms; editing modes; reporting models and runaway algorithm control. A review of graph data representations and file formats is also presented alongwith a comparison with other publicly available graph rendering tools. GraViz also supports a number of graph generation and analysis algorithms and some ideas for managing a potentially large reperatoire of such algorithms are presented.

Keywords: graphs; networks; visualization; algorithm; Java.

Full Document Text: PDF version.

Citation Information:
BiBTeX reference:

@techreport{CSTN-061,
 title="Interactive Graph Algorithm Visualization and the GraViz Prototype",
 author="K.A.Hawick",
 year="2010",
 month="October",
 series="CSTN-061",
 institution="Information and Mathematical Sciences, Massey University",
 address="Albany, North Shore 102-904, Auckland, New Zealand"
}

Plain bibitem entry:

\bibitem{CSTN-061}
K.A.Hawick. Interactive Graph Algorithm Visualization and the GraViz Prototype.
Computational Science Technical Note CSTN-061, Information and Mathematical Sciences,
Massey University, Albany, North Shore 102-904, Auckland, New Zealand, October 2010.