We need to create a CFG for some custom intermediate language code. We are currently using Qt + graphviz - and the CFGs look like ass.
Specifically, we cant seem to figure out how we can
get the "flow" (from top to bottom) into the graph, and
make the connecting lines go AROUND the other graph nodes.
Anyways, we were admiring the awesome IDA CFGs - and noticed that IDA does not seem to use graphviz at all! GV adds x MB of dependencies to our project, and we'd love to get rid of it.
SO the questions is: does anyone know what IDA uses for graph rendering and sorting?
We considered writing a IDA plugin to use the graphing feature, but that seems a little over the top for what we want to do.
Last I Checked they used (Q)WinGraph, you can get their modified source from this page (based off of VCG tool).
Something similar is yED which you might also want to check out & there are a few IDA scripts that use TouchGraph as well (which doesn't seem to be free).
I think that IDA use its own graph library (although you might ask Ilfak Guilfanov for a definitive answer about that).
What you're looking for is called "Sugiyama graph layout algorithm" (see: Layered graph drawing).
There is a really interesting paper about this problem (especially focusing on CFG) on citeseerx (see: Graph Layout for Code Flow Visualization).
As stated in the aforementioned paper the OGDF provides a Sugiyama layout algorithm although it might require some tweaking.
Hope that helps !
Related
I am looking for a tool to automate making graphs with Gephi. I have dozens of similar graphs to prepare (only labels and figures in data differ), so need something able to automatically:
load nodes and edges from a file (e.g., csv)
set up layout (e.g., "type='force atlas 2', iterations=n, threads=m, scaling=p, gravity=q...")
apply selected laoyut
tune appearance (ranking: color, size)
export graph
I am aware of Gephi Toolkit, but it is for Java. Maybe there is some other way to automate Gephi? (or I will have to learn Java, which is not bad, but requires time)
I've also found Gephi Scripting Plugin, which is good but lacks some features, e.g. can't set up layout (only runs it with default settings).
Thanks in advance!
It is a bit tricky and haven't tried myself but if you don't want to get your feet wet with Java then you could try one of the automation frameworks that allow you to control a GUI application, e.g. Robot, PyAutoGUI or if you use Windows you can use pywinauto.
I know it not a complete answer but it might give you a lead.
I need to fix my Alloy graph, for example I have this output:
I can't move "node2" rectangle over the row of "node0" and "node1", and I can't move "node1" under "node2" whitout also move "node0". Is there any solution? Thank you.
PS: I am using Alloy Analyzer 4.2 under Windows.
PPS: This is only an example, i get a big graph with 5 or 6 rows of 20-25 rectangles, and if I can't fix it manually, it's only a mess.
To answer the direct question: I for one have never found a way to make the visualizer change its mind about which nodes should be on the same horizontal level. (That doesn't quite mean it's not possible, but it does mean that if it's possible it's not immediately obvious how to do it. But I guess you knew that already.)
If your goal is to make the auto-generated diagrams easier to read, the simplest approach is to experiment with adjustments to the visualizer theme. The "Magic Layout" button can be helpful; manual adjustments to hide some nodes or display some relations as labels rather than arcs can help with diagrams which are otherwise too cluttered.
If your goal is to make a 'good' version of a diagram for inclusion on a slide for a talk or a figure for a paper, you may want to export to Dot and import into a graph-drawing tool that gives you the kind of manual control you want (or edit the .dot file yourself, if you are familiar with graphviz and can make it do what you want), or export to XML and generate the graph description language of your choice from the XML.
I hope this helps.
The Lightning tool is an Ecplise plugin relying on Alloy4.2 to formally define Domain Specific Languages and might be a solution to your problem.
It's still under development, but if you are only interested in being able to freely reorganize each atom and label of generated instances, there shouldn't be any problems, as it uses Ecplise draw2D to render those latter.
If now you're really interested in providing an intuitive visualization to your generated instance (by intuitive I mean a visualization that is closer to its domain rather than the structure of your model), then you can define your own language (with your model as abstract syntax ) and define a concrete syntax for it.
The update site to be used for the installation of the tool is : http://lightning.gforge.uni.lu/update-site
Don't hesitate to contact me if you plan to give it a shot and get any issues.
(I'm eager of constructive feedbacks ;-) )
The steps to follow to generate a graphical instance in which any components can be moved are :
Install Lightning
Create a new Lightning Project
Create a new Language in this project
Put your model in the ASM folder
generate instances of the language by "running the project"
Having a DokuWiki with some content (regular to small in sice and depth) I would like to automatically generate a GraphViz or Freeplane or any Form of easy to grasp visualisation of my content.
Why? Because the wiki tends to become less and less effective, when searching and organizing its content. As a user I have no good way to get a sharp Idea of the Wiki structure, which is why more and more often topics are not written and found where they supposed to be.
How to generate graphical sitemap of large website is what I found so far, but because my wiki is not that big, it would be quicker for me to just manually make a graph. And because the main topics are not that often updated or extended (like 10 extension a month tops), it would not be that hard to keed it up to date manually.
However, I would like to avoid manual tasks, at least in the future.
So is there a plugin or any other good way to graph the contents?
starting on the landing page, following the internal-wiki-links
using the namespace-sitemap
Either one would be nice, 1. interest me a bit more, because it reflects the paths a user could go, when just calling the wiki-start-page. I am greatful for any help, thanks.
I wrote a simple tool to do just that, the graph can then be analyzed in Gephi. Have a look at this blogpost: http://www.splitbrain.org/blog/2010-08/02-graphing_dokuwiki_help_needed
I'm building an application that parses text files that contain information about specific nodes with incoming ports and outgoing ports that are interconnected. Doing some research there are some libraries but none of them support the exact characteristics needed.
this is what I'm trying to build and any language will do: Python, Perl, .net, etc.
One of the libraries I have found is GoDiagaram Node Classes
http://www.nwoods.com/components/dotnet/features-nodes.htm
The idea is to have boxes like so, interconnected and I should be able to click on one of them and link it to a new sub-diagram with more boxes contained in the one clicked.
Is there a counter part of these kind of charts that is opensource? and do these diagrams have a specific kind of name?
I don't know any specific details, since I never looked into this too closely, but here are some potential directions:
The data structure used for representing something like this is usually a graph (probably a directed graph). You could also try searching for graphical (or visual) programming languages. I seem to remember Pure Data as one that was relevant, but I never looked at it in detail.
Blender and VirtualDub both have a mode that's similar to this (the node editor and audio filters, respectively) and I believe both are open source, although I think neither has the option of having the nodes contain other nodes internally.
You could just use LabVIEW, which gives you the ability to create and edit LV code programmatically (search for "VI scripting"), but the code for that might not be very pretty and it's certainly not open source.
I'm looking at requiring my team to document their code more thoroughly for some major upcoming projects and to make life a little less painful, I am steering towards XML documentation generators such as Sandcastle, Doxygen or Box Live Documenter.
What are the key considerations I should keep in mind when evaluating the best option and what experiences have led you to a particular decision?
For me the key considerations would be:
Fully automated: Can it be set up in such a way so that pretty much
no outside work is required to
create or edit the documentation.
Fully styled: Can the documentation be fully styled so
that it looks great in a wiki or pdf
after it’s generated. I should be
able to change colors, font sizes,
layouts, etc.
Good Filtering: Can I select only the items I want to be
generated. I should be able to
filter the namespaces, file types,
classes, etc.
Customization: Can I include headers, footers, custom elements,
etc.
I found Doxygen could do all of this. Our workflow is as follows:
Developer makes a change to the code
They update the documentation tags right above the code they just changed
We click a generate button
Doxygen will then extract all the XML documentation from the code, filter it to only include the classes and methods we want, and apply the CSS styling we’ve pre-made for it. Our end result is an internal wiki that looks the way we want, and doesn’t require editing.
Extra: We have all our projects in various git repositories. We pull all these down to one root folder and generate the docs form this root folder..
Would be interested to know how others are automating even further..?
Who is paying for the documentation and why? (is the system stable enough, does it add enough value)
Who is going to read it, and why is she not using a more effective communication channel?
(if correct mostly distance in time/place)
Who is going to keep it up to date.
When are you going to destroy it? (Automatically if it hasn't been read or updated in the past three months?)
I mostly prefer better code to make my life less painful, over more documentation, but I like scenario & unit tests and a high level architecture description.
[edit] Documentation costs time and money to write and keep up to date. JavaDoc style documentation has a serious detrimental effect on the amount of code simultaneously visible and might be a good idea for the developers using the code, but not for those writing it.