DistViz: Visualisation of distance matrices as 'virtual map' graphs

D. Gibbon, U Bielefeld, V0.1α 2015-07-23

Cite as: Gibbon, Dafydd. 2015. Visualisation of distance matrices as 'virtual map' graphs: DistViz. Bielefeld: U Bielefeld.
URL:http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/gibbon/DistViz/

I/O parameters
Input table CSV separator:
Graphics output format:
Graph style
(from AT&T GraphViz package)
neato spring model
dot undirected graph model
twopi centred circle model
circo circle model
Display style
... Range of distances to be processed
(check distance matrix for full data range)
Random seed for neato spring model
Graph magnification
Percent graph width (% of window width)
Title, comment, etc. (HTML formatting permitted)

Please note that calculation may take some time, depending on data quantity and graph settings.

Data input field

  1. Select the column separator (default: ";").
  2. Paste the distance triple table into the following field:

    Note: "Garbage in - garbage out!" - "If it ain't tested, it don't work!" So if you get weird output, no output, or threatening messages, check your data formatting very carefully!
    Currently only ASCII encoded text data are accepted and other UTF-8 characters will generate garbage. Note that for encodings of IPA phonetic transcriptions which are both human-readable and machine-readable the X-SAMPA ASCII encoding is still widely used where Unicode is not easily available.

Known issues:
With some parameter settings, which I have not been able to catalogue, the circo engine from the GraphViz package fails with a core dump and does not generate a graph (not my fault ☺).
The graphs are rendered correctly by the Firefox, Chrome and Dolphin browsers. After a parameter setting change, some Microsoft browsers (e.g. in Windows 8, WindowsPhone 8) do not update parameters correctly and the output needs to be reloaded in order to do so.

CGI implementation using GraphViz library.
D. Gibbon email Updated Monday, July 7, 2014 12:04:35 PM CEST