gman is a lightweight ncurses-based text-mode tool for navigating and annotating a mathematical graph, also known as a network. For example, notes for a project, references for an article--or syntax trees, Hasse diagrams, Cayley graphs, ... .

Originally, I started writing this program because I wanted a minimalist personal wiki for organizing notes and references. The other programs I found were too mouse-driven, toolbar-loaded, or application-specific, and I wanted something simpler than Emacs Org-mode.

(Illustration of Desargues configuration, c/o Geogebra)

(Type D4 root system, for so(8) Lie algebra)

How it works

The program works best for data possessing a mutable hierarchy.

The nodes (fields) of your graph belong to disjoint categories. You choose an ordering of the categories and an ordering of the nodes in each category to build a "tree view" into the data.

You can edit fields and category names, add new ones, and link up related nodes.

Get started

You'll probably need to be running Linux, but Mac support should be forthcoming (and even Windows, especially if Microsoft delivers on their promise to bundle a native terminal emulator with the new OS). The only library dependency is ncursesw. The GraphML implementation is based on PugiXML (thanks to Arseny Kapoulkine), with the source provided here.

Instructions:

git clone http://github.com/jimmymathews/gman
cd gman/
cmake .
make
./gman

For the above you'll need git. You'll also need cmake and make tools. Its a fairly primitive use of cmake, so you could instead compile it yourself with something like

g++ third_party_modules/pugixml/pugixml.cpp source/data/database_manager.cpp source/gui/screen_handler.cpp source/key_handling/key_handler.cpp source/gui/category_bar.cpp source/gui/category_tile.cpp source/data_interaction/tree_viewer.cpp source/Main.cpp -Iinclude -Ithird_party_modules/pugixml -Ikey_registration_module/include -std=c++11 -lncursesw -o gman

Since every terminal emulator handles keys differently, a little key-setup program runs the first time gman is run. (Actually it works as a self-contained module for mediating keystrokes, which you could easily use in your own ncurses projects.)

If you make a mistake in the configuration, remove the configuration file .mk_keys that it makes in your home directory and it will run again.

Controls

Basic

• Ctrl-Up/Down. Go down to the fields / up to the categories
• Ctrl-s. Save to .graphml file
• Ctrl-o. Open .graphml file
• Esc-Esc. Exit

Main window

• Left/Right/Up/Down. Navigation
• Shift-Up/Down. Swap fields in the same category
• Shift-Left/Right. Expand or collapse the tree view; selection if editing field contents
• Enter. Start/stop editing a field with small editor
• Ctrl-e. Start editing a field in larger editor. Enter allowed here to make new lines.
• Delete. Delete field
• Home/End. Navigation if editing field contents
• Ctrl-c. Copy selection
• Ctrl-v. Paste selection
• Ctrl-g. Initiate a greek character (upper or lower case)
• Ctrl-r. Toggle relation description display
• ^. Initiate a superscript numeral
• _. Initiate a subscript numeral
• n. New node linked to chosen node (select a category then Enter to start entering contents)
• l then t. Link the current node to another node; repeat t to link more nodes. Enter to stop linking
• u. Unlink the current node from its parent

Category bar

• Left/Right. Navigation
• Shift-Left/Right. Swap categories
• Enter. Start/stop editing a category
• Delete. Delete category (and all of its fields)
• n. New node belonging to chosen category, initially unlinked to any other node
• a. Add new category
• c. Change the color of the fields in the selected category
• Space. Hide/unhide the fields of the selected category

Relation names

To add a description of the relationship between two linked nodes (to label an edge of the graph), prepend to the target node contents something like some-relation-description: (the last two characters are a colon and space).

Development

If you'd like, consider reporting bugs (there are plenty), sharing recommendations, or writing new features:

• Simple bars indicating child nodes
• Search/replace function
• All-nodes view
• Filename tab completion
• Fix field editor page overflow
• "Pruning" operations; find graph-distance neighborhoods
• Merge graphs from file
• Mac/Windows support
• Export to BibTex
• Export to plain text
• Figure out ncurses colors to get more than 8 choices
• Create complete sub-graphs ("cliques") on (small!) selections