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DAGs make users' eyes cross

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DAGs make users' eyes cross Piotr Stopniak 19 Dec 02:34
20061219005552.11451.qmail@... 07 Oct 20:29
Piotr Stopniak
2006-12-19 02:34:00 UTC (over 17 years ago)

DAGs make users' eyes cross

The blender interface is pretty neat. I will spend a bit more time with it and also Jahshaka.
I like the preview node idea.
Nuke has a nice solution for that. When you have a node selected in the DAG, you just hit a number (1 to 9) and it pipes it off into a viewer node (creates one if it doesn't exist). Once in the viewer, you can hit those numbers again to flip back to the appropriate stage in the DAG from which you piped off, and you can split wipe between separate pages to do comparisons (which is another cool feature).

-P.

Justin Charette wrote:

Blender's recently added Materials/Compositing node editor is another possibility.
I'm impressed with it's design and functionality. Nodes have color-coded sockets to ensure the output from a node matches the input to another node.
The nodes can be "shaded" so only the node title is visible, or each node is
has different sections (preview window + output sockets, input sockets + value settings) that can be "shaded" individually using icons next to the node
title.
The use of preview output nodes that allow you to tap off outputs in the middle
of your DAG and see previews of intermediate stages is quite nice, too. The final kicker is that Blender is opensource GPL, assuming porting the interface from Blender is easier than trying to recreate a closed source implementation from scratch.

----- Original Message ---- From: Piotr Stopniak
To: gegl-developer-Or+p3mSrIjqU3F2EYrvgd0D9O10f7Vne@public.gmane.org Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 4:40:05 PM Subject: Re: [Gegl-developer] DAGs make users' eyes cross

Shea McCombs writes:

I had played around with DAG usability and layout before, and I'm

pretty sure
there is no better way to represent the data while retaining the same flexibility. I did come up with a somewhat good compromise though, which I
haven't implemented but I think would work for many DAG topologies. Here's an
illustration showing a standard DAG layout, and a 'block' layout of the same
graph below it:

http://upvector.com/aux/misc/dagvis_block.pngI'm

pretty sure there are
a few
cases where this would not work, but I am thinking of implementing it for usability testing. What do you guys think? Easier or worse? (I know, I don't
like the black dots either ...)

-shea

On 10/19/06, Piotr Stanczyk

wrote:

I have to say that the Shake UI is one of the most approachable ones

Ihave
seen. You can put someone in front of it and in 10 mins they canget something
going. It may not be the prettiest in the world, but itreallly focuses the user.

Contrast that to the Toxik interface which just looks wonderful

buthas a very
high entry point for new users ...my $0.02PiotrOn 10/18/06, Daniel Rogers <

daniel-UBMMxy9UFTLLJb+sv484WNi2O/JbrIOy@public.gmane.org> wrote:>> On Oct 17,

2006, at 9:15 PM, neota-s8PdfxpoPdHk1uMJSBkQmQ@public.gmane.org wrote:>> > What about a connected widgets visualization? Like some sound

studio software works with. Boxes with input/output> >

'plugs'/'sockets'
connected by 'wires' -- boxes might be color> > coded (eg yellow for clone, blue
for transform..)> > click+drag on box to move, ctrl+click to clone. (click to
rename?)

click on socket, click again on opposite type of socket to

connect.> >
Click on connected socket to reconnect this end of the wire to a> > different
socket.> > Click (or ctrl-click?) on wire to disconnect both ends.

Right-click (as in bauxite) to add nodes or do other misc ops.>

This

model might be slower to navigate with many nodes though.> > The main (and only?) flaw of a tree-view visualization that is

obviously a DAG is lack of detailed visual grouping, which is> >

addressed
by the above model.>> That is precisely the model used in labview, much sound
studio> software (like ProTools), high end compositing tools (like Shake),

high end 3d modeling tools, etc. It is a DAG. Yes, it is color>

coded, but
there is no rule that says a DAG can't be color coded. My> real point, which I
was going to get too, is that for every example

of people using a spreadsheet model (1, really) I can point out

why> it's
use is eventually discouraged, and point out 5 other examples> where is DAG
interface is used in the real world.>

--> Daniel> _______________________________________________>

Gegl-developer
mailing list> Gegl-developer-rmKnrA0qjLN8ewv5kxBBegeohdPTXOoP@public.gmane.org

https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gegl-developer> _______________________________________________Gegl-developer mailing list

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-- Shea McCombshttp://www.upvector.com/------If you're a cowboy, and

you're
dragging a guy behind your horse, I bet it would really make you mad if you
looked back and the guy was reading a magazine.