Category Visualization

However, as I laid out the map, I was in manual mode and although aided by the visual, the growing complexity of the chart suggested that my free-form approach had really skipped the possibility that all this wonderful graph theory that I am vaguely aware of might actually have a role to play. ... The resulting list in DOT looked something like this: digraph unix { node [shape=rectangle, color=orange, style=filled]; "Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) 1921-1972" -> "Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (UPNI) 1974 - 1981" ; "Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) 1921-1972" -> "Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) 1974 - 1981"; "Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) 1921-1972" -> "Protestant Unionist Party (PUP) 1960s - 1971" ; "Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) 1966 -" -> "Shankhill Defense Association (SDA) 1969 -" ; "Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee (1974 -)" -> "Ulster Special Constabulary Association (USCA)" ; "Ulster Loyalist Central Co-ordinating Committee (1974 -)" -> "Ulster Volunteer Service Corps (UVSC)" ; } A simple start and as you can see, DOT is not too complex. ... In a perfect world, this would actually be applicable to my dissertation work as well, as opposed to squirreling away a few precious hours of time I should be spending on writing about Canadian tavernkeepers ;-) Hopefully this provides a little bit of insight a to what tools are easily accessible to take relationships and represent them visually - tools which don't demand that you learn the finer points of graph theory, but do in fact allow you leverage them to appreciate the intricacies of large social networks.