To address questions 2-4, it's a space-filling curve [1], or basically an easy way to take a line and fill a 2D space. So when a single name is added to a names

To address questions 2-4, it's a space-filling curve [1], or basically an easy way to take a line and fill a 2D space. So when a single name is added to a namespace at the beginning of the curve, that blob gets bigger, and every other blob moves 'right'. Once you stare at it a while, you can see that every blob moves along the same path, and it's slightly easier to see which blobs are growing and which are getting shoved. But I agree that it isn't easy, and I think it's because the CPAN Map wasn't meant to be time-lapsed like this. Edit: if you go to the mapofcpan.org site and click on pixels, I think you'll figure out what the blue areas are. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-filling_curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-filling_curve