No, a topological ordering is an actual ordering. It's putting all of the elements in a collection in some linear order based on dependencies between them. The

No, a topological ordering is an actual ordering. It's putting all of the elements in a collection in some linear order based on dependencies between them. The output of this language/library is a graph, not a linearization. The river terminology is probably best described as a metaphor to help someone understand what a DAG is.