[instaviz-users] Instaviz export to Graphviz pointless?

[Andy Dent]

On 09/17/2009, at 4:51 PM, Osbert Lancaster wrote:

> How can I export Instaviz in a format I can keep working on the
> mindmap on my Mac?
.gv files are text files.

Until Instaviz came along, that is all any of us ever did - edit the  
text files by hand.

The DOT language used in GraphViz is actually very easy to use.


> I've tried exporting in .gv and opening in Graphviz, but Graphviz
> (which I've never used before) seems to have no functionality other
> than showing an image of the map.
correct

AFAIK there are no editors which take DOT and export it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOT_language comments that Omnigraffle  
has some limited import but can't export.

Freemind has a DOT exporter http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Accessories 
.

Out of curiousity, if you could edit the graph connections and  
properties in a form-based GUI, say some kind of listbox of  
connections and preview next to it but NOT click on the graph to  
select items, would that be of appeal or do you think people demand  
direct interaction?

A big issue with providing mouse or finger selection of items in a  
graph rendered with GraphViz is knowing how an x,y location on the  
screen maps back to the elements of the graph. Glen solved this very  
neatly for InstaViz but AFAIK it is not a feature of the normal  
GraphViz library so an editor which allows pointing to select is a lot  
of work.