From: "Zier, Thomas" Subject: Re: APPS: Representing complex hierarchies > Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1993 09:40:15 -0800 > From: Nat Pryce > Could anyone recommend any references dealing with the > use of VR to represent complex hierarchies. > I need to represent hierarchies > where each node may have multiple _parents_ as well as multiple > children, cycles can exist in the graph and each node can contain > objects (as a directory contains files). The problem I have is how > to represent the local information (what is at each node) at the > same time as context information (where the user is in the > hierarchy). I would appreciate some pointers to other work > done in this area. The CS discipline, as yet, has not adopted the sort of philosophical structure neccessary to acheive substantially complex representations of this sort (and that is due to the Platonist hierarchical intellectual strategies which clearly dominate this domain); however, what you are asking for will be available soon. But perhaps not in a VR package. An interesting proposal for just such a representational system was made at the "IFIP Perceptual Issues in Scientific Visualization" workshop in San Jose last month, and a paper on that topic is forthcoming in the associated publication by Springer Verlag next spring, but more than that I should not say ;- ( See, I finally learned my lesson Bob! I didn't used to believe that intellectual theft was a way of life for some; but you're right. OUCH! T. Zier P.S. Read my rapporteur's piece also, for the "Perceptual Paradigms" working group, since that may give more of a contextual overview on this project and its relationship to your queery.