First of all, you need to be using something that can display Java
applets to play with this, or you won't see anything. If you don't
see anything useful when you look at the examples, try typing
athena% add iadev
athena% netscape-beta -in /mit/bert/project/java/private/start.html &
But enough introduction. Here is the first example:
The space above should contain some buttons and checkboxes, and above
them, three circles connected by straight lines. The lines are
springy, so the circles will soon settle down forming an equilateral
triangle.If you click on a circle, it will turn gray. If you now drag
it, you can move it around. Because of the springiness of the lines,
the other two nodes will follow it around or run away from it. As the
lines stretch or shrink, they will change color from black to yellow
to red.
-
Selecting the Frozen checkbox in the top row will stop the
dots from running all over the place while you're moving them.
-
The Scramble button will randomize the positions of all the
nodes. This may be useful if you are trying to completely rearrange
your map. (Yeah, yeah, I know, if you completely rearrange a
triangle, you get a triangle. So?)
-
The Shake button will try to randomize your map too, but with
slightly less violence.
-
The Set Lengths button will change the lengths of all the
edges to the current distances between their nodes. This works the
best while the graph is frozen.
Play with it, then go see how to actually
create graphs by listing edges.