| Wishing I had a non-Java version of VUE |
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Friday, July 1st, 2016 18:33:28 GMT |
| Software |
Probably my least favorite thing about the wonderful concept mapping software VUE: Visual Understanding Environment is the fact that it's Java software.
Because of Java's reputation for security problems, I don't even like to install Java on my computers outside of a VirtualBox. And even without using VirtualBox, Java uses up a big chunk of memory, which I always like to conserve, even though now I have a laptop with 8 GB of RAM.
So, I've been daydreaming about somehow porting VUE away from Java and into something else. Into what, exactly? Anything I like more than Java!
I think it would be great to be able to run VUE in most any web browser on any platform, without having to use the Java applet version of VUE.
And perhaps existing VUE concept map files - which are in XML format - could be read using the JavaScript software Saxon-CE, which makes it possible for web browsers to use XSLT 2.0, a language which is useful for processing and drastically transforming XML data.
I'm guessing Saxon-CE might also help make it possible to output concept map files which would be perfectly compatible with the Java version of VUE.
And perhaps saving that concept map data would be (or could be made) as simple as using TiddlyWiki's save feature.
And maybe it could also be somehow made into a viewer and editor for OrientDB and Neo4j graph databases.
So, just thought I'd share the ideas.
But in particular, I was thinking JavaScript might be especially nice. :-) (Yes, I am aware that Java and JavaScript aren't related, despite the similar names. :-) )
A few years ago, I was able to use the JavaScript library Raphaël to randomly generate very VUE-like graphics for my rather cumbersomely-named Astroblahhh.Com Simple Generator of Many VUE Nodes with Random Colors and Fonts v1.0. :-)
Having a JavaScript version of VUE would also make it tremendously easier to somehow build a VUE concept-map-style viewer or editor for Astroblahhh Desktop data, or for other web apps, like maybe the not-yet-existing CMS - content management system, for lack of a better term - of my dreams. :-)
I don't know if I'll ever really go to the trouble to try to build a JavaScript port of VUE, or any other port of VUE. But, even if I don't ever get around to it, I think it might be quite worthwhile and useful for someone(s) to do.