gabriel@VAXB.ISI.EDU (Gabriel Robins) (02/17/88)
AI/Graphics tool availability update:
"The ISI Grapher: a Portable Tool for Displaying Graphs Pictorially"
Now available for the MacIntosh II and SUNs (as well as for Symbolics
and TI Explorers).
Greetings,
Due to the considerable interest drawn by the ISI Grapher so far, I am
posting this abstract summarizing its function and current status. The ISI
Grapher Common LISP sources are now available to both domestic and foreign
sites.
A paper describing this effort is now available, entitled: "The ISI
Grapher: a Portable Tool for Displaying Graphs Pictorially." A more
detailed document is also available, called "The ISI Grapher Manual." It
describes the implementation, usage, data-structures, and algorithms of the
ISI Grapher.
The CommonLisp sources are also available. It currently runs on Symbolics
versions 6 & 7, TI Explorers versions 2 & 3, MacIntosh II (under both Coral
Allegro LISP and ExperCommon LISP), and SUNs (under Franz and Lucid, using X).
Ports to other machines, such as HP Bobcats, are currently in the planning.
If you know of any other ports, both completed or planned, please let me know.
If you would like to have the paper and/or the sources, please forward your
name and postal address to "gabriel@vaxb.isi.edu" or to:
Gabriel Robins
Intelligent Systems Division
Information Sciences Institute
4676 Admiralty Way
Marina Del Rey, Ca 90292-6695
ExperTelligence Inc. is currently marketing the ISI Grapher for the MacIntosh
under ExperCommon LISP. You may contact them directly regarding the Mac
version: ExperTelligence Inc., 559 San Ysidro Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93108
(805) 969-7871.
=======================================
The ISI Grapher
February, 1988
Gabriel Robins
Intelligent Systems Division
Information Sciences Institute
The ISI Grapher is a set of functions that convert an arbitrary graph
structure (or relation) into an equivalent pictorial representation and
displays the resulting diagram. Nodes and edges in the graph become boxes
and lines on the workstation screen, and the user may then interact with the
Grapher in various ways via the mouse and the keyboard.
The fundamental motivation which gave birth to the ISI Grapher is the
observation that graphs are very basic and common structures, and the belief
that the ability to quickly display, manipulate, and browse through graphs may
greatly enhance the productivity of a researcher, both quantitatively and
qualitatively. This seems especially true in knowledge representation and
natural language research.
The ISI Grapher is both powerful and versatile, allowing an
application-builder to easily build other tools on top of it. The ISI NIKL
Browser is an example of one such tool. The salient features of the ISI
Grapher are its portability, speed, versatility, and extensibility. Several
additional applications were already built on top of the ISI Grapher,
providing the ability to graph lists, flavors, packages, divisors, functions,
LOOM hierarchies, and Common-Loops classes.
Several basic Grapher operations may be user-controlled via the specification
of alternate functions for performing these tasks. These operations include
the drawing of nodes and edges, the selection of fonts, the determination of
print-names, pretty-printing, and highlighting operations. Standard
definitions are already provided for these operations and are used by default
if the application-builder does not override them by specifying his own
custom-tailored functions for performing the same tasks.
The ISI Grapher now spans about 200K of CommonLisp code. The 105-page
ISI Grapher manual is available; this manual describes the general ideas, the
interface, the application-builder's back-end, the algorithms, the
implementation, and the data structures. A shorter paper is also available,
and includes hardcopy samples of the screen during execution. The ISI Grapher
presently runs on both Symbolics (versions 6 & 7), TI Explorer workstations
(versions 2 & 3), MacIntosh II (under both Coral Allegro LISP and ExperCommon
LISP), and SUNs (under Franz and Lucid, using X); ports to other machines are
being planned.
If you are interested in more information, the sources themselves, or just
the paper/manual, please feel free to forward your name and postal address to
"gabriel@vaxb.isi.edu" or write to "Gabriel Robins, Information Sciences
Institute, 4676 Admiralty Way, Marina Del Rey, Ca 90292-6695 U.S.A."