Creating Node Networks...Anyone?

[rcallicotte]

As a programmer, it would be good for me to know a quick and thorough way to build a node network, unless these two descriptions are mutually exclusive.  Jo (or anyone), where is a good primer on making a node network?  I don't need to do anything like in TG2, but it could be useful to make things to work visually for end-users rather than needing to explain so much.

I program in C#, but C++ is doable.  Any suggestions?

[jo]

Hi calico,

I'm not aware of anything that talks about writing a node network. FWIW I didn't write the TG2 node network either, though I spend a lot of time messing with it :-).

On the surface it's a pretty straightforward though. There are two parts. The most important part is the data structures and management etc. algorithms you have behind the scenes. You have node objects. You need some way to know if node objects are connected and some way to pass information/data between node objects.

The second part is the visual part which is really just a presentation layer. That can take any form you like and it graphically represents the data structures behind the scenes. You can interpret user actions to make and break connections between nodes etc.

I think I could probably bash up a rough and ready but functional node network in a week or so. This is fundamentally a question of data structures. The visual stuff is just a presentation or view of those data structures. You could get the back end working entirely in code (i.e. you can construct networks in code and have them work) and then put the visual stuff on top of that.

I don't see why you couldn't do this in C# just as well as C++.

Regards,

Jo

[rcallicotte]

Thanks Jo.  I figured you were writing all of the node network code, including the visuals.  It looks easier than it is, I'm certain.  I'm still curious and this helps.