Objections to converting bsd-family-tree to a dot file

[Mark Heily]

On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 2:49 PM, Rodney W. Grimes <
freebsd-rwg at pdx.rh.cn85.dnsmgr.net> wrote:

> > On 15 December 2017 at 08:43, Lyndon Nerenberg <lyndon at orthanc.ca>
> wrote:
> > >> I'd like to turn this into into a dot file
> > > Sounds like a reasonable idea.  With care, the source (text) file(s)
> can
> > > often be formatted in a way that's at least semi-readable. I assume
> this
> > > would ship with pregenerated images (PDF, SVG) so people don't have to
> > > install the port to render the graph?
> >
> >
> > The overall consensus seems to be: so long as there is a reasonable
>
> way to view this file in plaintext without requiring a tool in base,
> > its fine. I'll likely run with that after ironing out the conversion
> > bit.
>
> I have seen no presentation of a reasonable way to view the
> graph in plain text.


I have no personal experience with it, but a quick Google search says
there are programs based on the Graph::Easy library that can
render DOT files as ASCII.

Example:

https://codeyarns.com/2017/10/21/how-to-convert-dot-graph-to-ascii/

 Nor do I find the output you presented
> as a sample very usable due to scaling issues, one of the graphs
> was massively wide, the other was ok but at such a scale had
> to be zoomed significantly to read.
>
> Though they are "pretty" I find them cumbersumb to use.  And that
> means they wont be used.
>
>
I agree, there is so much information that you can't see the forest for the
trees.
Have you considered removing minor releases and bugfix releases from the
diagram,
especially when you get down into NetBSD/OpenBSD/FreeBSD land?

+1 for the idea of using DOT to generate this graph, and good luck with it.