------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Announcement: Graph-Visualization System daVinci V1.4.2 available:
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May 31, 1995  (Bremen, Germany) - University of Bremen announces daVinci 
V1.4.2,  a universal,  generic  visualization  system  for  high-quality 
drawings of  directed graphs.  Graphs  are frequently  used in  computer 
applications as  a general data structure  for representing hierarchies,  
dependencies, networks, configurations,  dataflows, and so on.  A visual 
representation becomes more and more important, but good graph layout is 
difficult to implement  and powerful  graph drawing tools,  prepared for 
integration with other application programs, are hard to find.  So often 
an application user has to deal with uncomfortable textual interfaces or 
poor ad-hoc drawings of graphs.

The  interactive graph  visualization system  daVinci tries  to overcome 
these deficits by providing a  hierarchical graph layout of high quality 
together with comfortable features  such as interactive abstractions and 
fine tuning  layout operations.  daVinci is  designed for  communication 
with an arbitrary application program  which is able to use daVinci as a 
graphical user interface for directed graphs.

An overview about daVinci:
==========================
    - Automatic layout algorithms for directed graphs (with edge 
      crossing minimization and bend reduction) and trees.
    - Support for cyclic graphs and graphs with multiple edges.
    - Interactive fine-tuning operations for layout customization.
    - Many attributes for nodes and edges available (e.g. colors, 
      patterns, shapes, text, fonts, icons, etc.).
    - Interactive abstractions (e.g. collapse a subgraph, hide edges).
    - Scaling to any rate without losing interactive capabilities.
    - PostScript interface for printing and exporting visualizations.
    - Application interface to connect arbitrary programs that 
      generates graphs and controls their development. The interface 
      provides commands to send graphs, add menus to daVinci's user 
      interface, execute dialogues with the user, start visualization 
      operations, etc. On the other side, the application is informed 
      about user events in daVinci such as selection of nodes, edges or 
      menus. 
    - Interactive graph editor available. This separate program can be
      connected to daVinci's application interface.

New features in minor release daVinci V1.4.2:
=============================================
    - Support for HP-UX, IBM AIX and FreeBSD platforms. The HP-UX port 
      was done in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard Inc. Many thanks 
      to Cliff Click of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories for doing this 
      port. The FreeBSD port was done by Jeffrey Hsu at University at
      California at Berkley. Many thanks to him, too.
    - Fixes for some bugs in daVinci V1.4.1
    	  
daVinci is  an OPEN LOOK program,  available for Sun SPARCstations (with 
SunOS 4.1.x and Solaris 2.x),  HP workstations (with HP-UX),  IBM RS6000
(with AIX)  or PC's  (with Linux or FreeBSD).  Ports to other UNIX plat-
forms  are possible,  but not  available  at this time.  The authors are 
Michael Froehlich and Mattias Werner.  daVinci is already in use at more 
than 700 educational and commercial sites all over the world. The system 
is available free of charge for non-profit use  and can be downloaded by 
anonymous ftp from:
	
    ftp.Uni-Bremen.DE (134.102.228.2) 
    in directory: /pub/graphics/daVinci

In this directory there are tar-archives (compressed with gzip) for each 
supported platform (SunOS 4,  Solaris 2,  HP-UX,  Linux,  FreeBSD, AIX).  
The content is the same  for all distributions,  except of the binaries.  
The sources  are not available.  Each distribution  covers daVinci,  the 
documentation, manual pages, examples and tools.  To contact the daVinci 
project,  to send bugs,  to suggest new features or  to subscribe to the 
mailing list, please write by e-mail to: 

    daVinci@Informatik.Uni-Bremen.DE

>>> The daVinci Information Server is available in WWW: 	     <<<
>>> http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~inform/forschung/daVinci    <<<
