Anyone know any simple software to make some? I know there's several software solutions out there, but maybe someone has experience? I have a network graph project that remains unfinished since years ago...
I wanted to use
Alexander's Pattern Language in a design project, but the book form itself makes the process tedious, when this should be an interactive network graph. It is somewhat sad that he started the whole design patterns idea that are now used in software design, but his own initial work has never been properly appreciated or used in the architectural field, perhaps, partly, due to the unintuitive presentation that is the book form. At first I attempted to make it a simple graph (by hand) but the scale and complexity of the network made that impractical for use, it needed to be interactive and extendible.
I've been working (mentally) on this for several years so I've got quite a good conceptual idea of how it'd work, I just lack the programming know-how (and motivation-time) to do it. As usual. This application could be used to any pattern-database, in fact. The whole idea of it being that one can use the graph as a design tool, not as a mere representation of data...
Ideally it should be a wiki-like hyperlinked database, viewable both in text form and as an interactive graph. In that way, one would be able to see how the patterns interrelate at every stage and scale without losing track of the whole. With a directed network graph, one should be able to trace a path of design development through the different nodes, branching out from broad general patterns into increasingly specific details (or start from a detail and expand outwards). One could see the entire complexity of a project, and be able to analyze projects by their graphs. And by hovering over nodes one would be able to access the wiki and get the whole description, explanatory diagrams and photo examples, so the tool itself is pedagogic.
Well, back to reality now...
