Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

I found a great use for Graphviz recently. I needed to implement a model that was created by a scientist with no programming experience outside of a Fortran class in the early 1980s. Meanwhile, I didn't have much knowledge of the subject matter or terminology. The model was described in a multipage Excel file and an accompanying PDF and I implemented it in Clojure.

In order to help us communicate, I wrote a script that built a data-dependency graph directly from the code and produced a diagram with Graphviz for the scientist to review. It helped us to catch a couple errors resulting from my misinterpretations and it gave the scientist confidence that the code accurately reflected his design.




I have used rather nice clojure library that also uses graphviz under the bonnet, with great success:

https://github.com/Engelberg/ubergraph

Did you use something similar or roll your own?

In any case, your project sounds great and I am glad it was a success.


I used Rhizome[1]. (It looks like it is no longer being maintained, but I didn't run into any issues.)

1. https://github.com/ztellman/rhizome


Very nice! (and pleasingly similar)

Thanks


That’s fantastic. You should write a blog post on that.


There's an Emacs package which also uses Graphviz in the same way to show function dependencies during development:

https://github.com/mtekman/elisp-depmap.el


Also i think it's a great use case for the data-drivenness of clojure :)




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: