4 ms·

Some others have already mentioned that "mind mapping" software is similar, and I'd agree -- just see this image[2]. That image was created with Mindnode[1], w

by chavesn 13y ago

Some others have already mentioned that "mind mapping" software is similar, and I'd agree -- just see this image[2]. That image was created with Mindnode[1], which I really like (I've only tried the light version, but that seems to be discontinued). [1]: https://mindnode.com/assets/images/screens/iphone-1-1136x640-withstatusbar.png https://mindnode.com/assets/images/screens/iphone-1-1136x640... [2]: https://mindnode.com/ https://mindnode.com/

pcmonk 13y ago
I'd never really seriously considered mind mapping software, and while I still don't think it's exactly what I want, it actually seems to have more potential than it seemed. Thanks for the suggestion.
- Retric 13y ago
  For tree data you may want to look into various XML designers / editors. You can easily define a recursive XSL style sheet that has the structure you want, after that there are various editors that automatically read that structure and give you a GUI from it. It's been a few years but I found XMLSpy to be fairly decent. http://www.altova.com/xmlspy.html http://www.altova.com/xmlspy.html Edit: The simplest tree editor is probably the file system on your computer. However, the problem is for proof's I suspect your going to want to have some sort of graph structure. PS: If your willing to do some light coding XQuery/XSL-FO let's you transform the raw XML into various more user friendly formats like PDF's. However, if your structure is really nested that quickly get's hard for people to understand.
- pixelglow 13y ago
  The issue with a lot of mind-mapping software is that the data must be strictly hierarchical. Sometimes when brainstorming you want to represent data with cross-links or in multiple categories, which is where something like Graphviz, Instaviz, Omnigraffle or Visio come in.
bizarref00l 13y ago
Latex Tikz, has nice mind maps http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/feature/mindmaps/ http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/feature/mindmaps/
dredmorbius 13y ago
Mind-mapping is useful, though I've yet to find a tool I really like and can use 1) intuitively and 2) for very large models. Online, there's Text2MindMap[1] which is quick and easy to use, and offers a rubber-band like ability to reposition nodes, but in my experience, once past a couple of hundred nodes (I do some fairly large maps) performance gets really laggy, especially if you've got an otherwise populated Chrome session running. Offline, there's the FreeMind[2] tool, Java based. My main problem with it is that editing is incredibly fussy. What I prefer mostly is GraphViz[3], which is not just a mind-mapping tool, but can be used as such. The advantage here is that what you're editing is a simple text file, with graphic output created by running one of the graphviz commands over it (dot, neato, twopi, circo, fdp, sfdp). For a traditional mind map, the 'circo' command is probably what you're looking for. While not as interactive as other methods, if you're working on a complex space, the lack of constant overhead for graphical presentation is a plus, as is the simplicity of the base language. What I'm still looking to do is to write a simple outline -> GraphViz converter which sets up edges based on indent levels and parent, which would further simplify the input problem. ________________________________ Notes: 1. http://text2mindmap.com/ http://text2mindmap.com/ 2. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Freemind https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Freemind 3. http://graphviz.org/ http://graphviz.org/
smrtinsert 13y ago
I use freemind which is excellent. You sail through your input, the defaults are very well optimized.
LeChuck 13y ago
There's also treesheets. It's a nested table editor, but the tables can also be rendered as mind maps. My description doesn't really do it justice, but it's pretty cool. http://strlen.com/treesheets/ http://strlen.com/treesheets/

by chavesn 13y ago

pcmonk 13y ago

I'd never really seriously considered mind mapping software, and while I still don't think it's exactly what I want, it actually seems to have more potential than it seemed. Thanks for the suggestion.

Retric 13y ago
For tree data you may want to look into various XML designers / editors. You can easily define a recursive XSL style sheet that has the structure you want, after that there are various editors that automatically read that structure and give you a GUI from it. It's been a few years but I found XMLSpy to be fairly decent. http://www.altova.com/xmlspy.html http://www.altova.com/xmlspy.html Edit: The simplest tree editor is probably the file system on your computer. However, the problem is for proof's I suspect your going to want to have some sort of graph structure. PS: If your willing to do some light coding XQuery/XSL-FO let's you transform the raw XML into various more user friendly formats like PDF's. However, if your structure is really nested that quickly get's hard for people to understand.
pixelglow 13y ago
The issue with a lot of mind-mapping software is that the data must be strictly hierarchical. Sometimes when brainstorming you want to represent data with cross-links or in multiple categories, which is where something like Graphviz, Instaviz, Omnigraffle or Visio come in.

bizarref00l 13y ago

Latex Tikz, has nice mind maps http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/feature/mindmaps/ http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/feature/mindmaps/

dredmorbius 13y ago

Mind-mapping is useful, though I've yet to find a tool I really like and can use 1) intuitively and 2) for very large models. Online, there's Text2MindMap[1] which is quick and easy to use, and offers a rubber-band like ability to reposition nodes, but in my experience, once past a couple of hundred nodes (I do some fairly large maps) performance gets really laggy, especially if you've got an otherwise populated Chrome session running. Offline, there's the FreeMind[2] tool, Java based. My main problem with it is that editing is incredibly fussy. What I prefer mostly is GraphViz[3], which is not just a mind-mapping tool, but can be used as such. The advantage here is that what you're editing is a simple text file, with graphic output created by running one of the graphviz commands over it (dot, neato, twopi, circo, fdp, sfdp). For a traditional mind map, the 'circo' command is probably what you're looking for. While not as interactive as other methods, if you're working on a complex space, the lack of constant overhead for graphical presentation is a plus, as is the simplicity of the base language. What I'm still looking to do is to write a simple outline -> GraphViz converter which sets up edges based on indent levels and parent, which would further simplify the input problem. ________________________________ Notes: 1. http://text2mindmap.com/ http://text2mindmap.com/ 2. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Freemind https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Freemind 3. http://graphviz.org/ http://graphviz.org/

smrtinsert 13y ago

I use freemind which is excellent. You sail through your input, the defaults are very well optimized.

LeChuck 13y ago

There's also treesheets. It's a nested table editor, but the tables can also be rendered as mind maps. My description doesn't really do it justice, but it's pretty cool. http://strlen.com/treesheets/ http://strlen.com/treesheets/