Graphical flavor browser...

[gooch@TIJERAS.SW-SW.Dialnet.Symbolics.COM (William D. Gooch)]

    Date: Tue, 20 Nov 90 08:10:39 EST
    From: cdwilli@algol.cs.umbc.edu (Chris Willianson (Guest of Al))

    A couple of years ago, when I began using Symbolicses, I remember
    seeing a tool that allowed one to look at a flavor tree graphically.
    The name of a flavor would appear at the top of a window; then names
    of its components would appear under it, branching out across the
    screen.  This branching out would continue for each flavor and its
    components until the leaves of the tree were reached.  The tool had
    both horizontal and vertical scrolling, so that one could travel from
    branch to branch of the same tree using the slender, vine-like scroll
    bars.

    I looked in the 8.0 source directory but didn't find the code for this
    tool.  (Maybe it's there, and I didn't see it; I now have to use
    glasses when looking at the screen.)

    Does anyone know about such a tool?

Several years ago, I developed and made available (as an extension of
the then-new Flavor Examiner) a tool very similar to what you describe.
It allowed viewing of the graph (a "tree-ification" of the typically
tangled flavor component/dependent structures) either horizontally or
vertically, kept a history of graphs viewed, had three kinds of panning
capability (1not0 using scroll bars), a font-size-based "zoom" feature,
and supported mouse interaction with the nodes.  I contributed a copy of
it to the SLUG library under the system name "flavor-grafex."

However, this approach has been somewhat outmoded for a couple of
reasons.  One is that the Flavor Examiner itself has evolved and now
includes its own facility for viewing flavor component and dependent
structures.  Another is that if you want to have a graph of such
structures, you can readily obtain it now using format-graph-from-root
in any dynamic window.  My tool was written before dynamic windows
existed and used the older static window system and its own custom
implementation for mouse-sensitive items.  I think I did make the code
work in Genera 7, although it's been so long since I used it in that
form that I don't remember for sure, and the Flavor Examiner has changed
now to the point where I'm sure it is no longer compatible.

Anyway, using format-graph-from-root, you should be able to whip up
your own version of this sort of thing in very short order.  

			    Christian Williamson

    "...perseverance, continuously applied, may become genius."
				    Wilfred Funk