
Gource.io – a software version control visualization tool - fortran77
http://gource.io
======
dwheeler
Gource is a really cool visualization tool. Here's a Gource visualization of
development of the Python programming language (C Python implementation, aka
CPython):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNBtDstOTmA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNBtDstOTmA)
Here's a collection of Gource visualizations:
[https://github.com/acaudwell/Gource/wiki/Videos](https://github.com/acaudwell/Gource/wiki/Videos)

If you create your own visualizations, I strongly recommend that you automate
doing it as much as possible. For example, if you process data first, use a
script to automate processing the data. You'll need to give Gource various
options, and there are a lot of options; store options in its config file or
scripts.

Also, if you create a Gource video, I _strongly_ recommend adding some music
or at least an audio commentary. If you add music, make sure it's legal to
add; the safe route is to use music released under open licenses such as
Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) CC0 Public Domain Dedication (CC0).
Beware of the "non-commercial use" licenses - your releases might count as
"commercial" even if you don't think they do (talk to a lawyer if you want to
go down that path). A great place to start for Gource music is audionautix.com
( [https://audionautix.com/](https://audionautix.com/) ), which has released
lots of music under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License; you
can select from lots of different styles and get some great options.
"Improving Gource Videos with Background and Audio" (
[https://fransdejonge.com/2018/02/improving-gource-videos-
wit...](https://fransdejonge.com/2018/02/improving-gource-videos-with-
background-and-audio/) ) has some tips and instructions.

~~~
skybrian
Hmm, why do you recommend adding music? This is a pet peeve of mine, many
videos would be better without attaching unrelated music to them. Less
processing is better.

~~~
dwheeler
> Hmm, why do you recommend adding music?

For the human. Videos are way more interesting to most people if there's an
audio track of some kind. Anyone who doesn't like the sound can mute it.

Less processing really isn't relevant. CPU is cheap. Yes, audio does take
_some_ additional space & network, but it's practically nothing compared to
the space required for a video. So if you're making a video anyway, add some
sound and make it interesting for the human who's viewing it.

~~~
tjoff
Not really picking sides but the one thing I hate with music is that if I for
any reason would not like to listen to it. Maybe I'm already listening to
music - maybe I don't have my headphones on and don't want to disturb anyone
else (or don't have speakers). Or I'm on a laptop/phone where the speakers are
just terrible.

If I press the mute button I will not know if I'm missing out on some
important commentary.

There should be a standardized way to convey that the audio is optional and
doesn't directly relate to the video. To be fair this also applies to videos
without sound (how am I supposed to know there is no sound unless I've watched
the whole thing?) - though with the advantage that one can leave it unmuted
and at least detect if someone starts talking.

~~~
dwheeler
I like the idea of having some standardized way of noting that. The indicator
would have to be short and clear. Any ideas? Maybe "Music-only audio"?

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dwheeler
Gource is a really cool visualization tool, and although it's originally
intended to show software development over time, it's useful for showing other
community works over time. Here is a visualization of the development of
set.mm (the Metamath Proof Explorer (MPE)), a set of formalized math proofs
that's been developed over time with (now) 48 people:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XC1g8FmFcUU](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XC1g8FmFcUU)

I find these visualizations great to help show people how open source software
contributions work. Most people get the idea that collaboration can result in
amazing things, but there is nothing like a visualization actually showing it
in action.

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k__
I once ran it on the one year old codebase of a startup I got a job at.

That guy rewrote the whole code base every month.

New clusters growing and getten teared down all the time.

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noitpmeder
Where I worked we used this to display other tree based data, was an
interesting exercise. As long as you can translate into their log formats it
was really simple to set up. Was more eye-candy to be honest.

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aloknnikhil
>
> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkJxlKD2bjk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkJxlKD2bjk)

The first time I saw Gource in action was in a video that visualized the
history of the Linux kernel. Really interesting data, especially when paired
with key headlines about the project.

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_ZeD_
I'm old! I remember I toyed with
[https://code.google.com/archive/p/codeswarm/](https://code.google.com/archive/p/codeswarm/)
before gource was a thing

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Syntaf
Cool seeing this tool come up on HN. 5 years ago when I was getting into
programming I came across this and made a visualization for one of my favorite
libraries at the time, SFML ([https://www.sfml-dev.org/](https://www.sfml-
dev.org/))

[https://vimeo.com/100557603](https://vimeo.com/100557603)

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j88439h84
It's pretty, but I can't think of anything I'd use it as a "tool" _for_.

~~~
paragraft
Coworker used it to generate a visual history of all the changes a departing
colleague had made in his time at the company. Put it up on a wall at his
farewell party, was a nostalgia trip for those who remembered many of the
older directory names that popped up (and helped drive home how much of a
contribution this single dev had made early on).

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wjdp
Is there a binary available for this? Download on the site seems to just be
source.

Currently running `./configure` and going through the dance of working out
what my package manager calls each of the dependencies one at a time with no
idea of progress (has anyone solved this problem?).

~~~
baroffoos
Its available on the package managers of most linux distros.

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dsun180
So someone upload many videos generated with this tool to youtube. I was
really impressed when I stumpled upon it.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_mSedHiTk0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_mSedHiTk0)

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_binder
Totally unrelated may be, I have a one plus 7 pro with the front camera that
pop's up, when I opened the link it just popped up and went down. This is the
first time that is happening. Weird.

~~~
pgug
Are you using Firefox? Because it happens to me too with some websites, and it
really creeps me out.

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vanous
Link to repository:
[https://github.com/acaudwell/Gource](https://github.com/acaudwell/Gource)

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keyle
Found the related software for web access logs to be more impressive!
[https://logstalgia.io](https://logstalgia.io)

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Trimbell
I've never seen this before, but it looks super interesting. Seems like it's
been around for a while though.

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____smurf____
Do you know which library (or similar one) is used for this visualization?

~~~
PetahNZ
It's basically the same as a d3 force layout.

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mscasts
If the title wouldn't include a description of what it is I would be very
confused. There is nothing on the website that actually say what it is.

~~~
aloknnikhil
> Software projects are displayed by Gource as an animated tree with the root
> directory of the project at its centre. Directories appear as branches with
> files as leaves. Developers can be seen working on the tree at the times
> they contributed to the project.

I thought that was descriptive enough.

