Stephen North magneticnorth

## gist:aadf3c144fbe2ad30f2d
NB: This is a stream of consciousness after a minimum of thought.  It is possible that the graphviz community has already been over all of this.  Please don't take this too seriously.

Graphviz is awesome.  It allows you to logically describe a graph and then lay it out.

Graphviz is one of the most frustrating pieces of software I've ever used.  It is easy to get everything you *want* in the diagram but increadibly hard to make it actually look the way you imagine it.

The fundamental problem, in my mind, is that there is an unfortunate incosistency around subgraphs.  Most of the layout algorithms tend to do global layout when complex diagrams often times require different layout algorithms for different parts of the project.

To fix this I'd do the following:
* Allow true subgraph layout of nodes and edges completely contained in the subgraph.  Allow users to easily mix and match layout algorithms in the same diagram.
	NB: This is a stream of consciousness after a minimum of thought. It is possible that the graphviz community has already been over all of this. Please don't take this too seriously.

	Graphviz is awesome. It allows you to logically describe a graph and then lay it out.

	Graphviz is one of the most frustrating pieces of software I've ever used. It is easy to get everything you want in the diagram but increadibly hard to make it actually look the way you imagine it.

	The fundamental problem, in my mind, is that there is an unfortunate incosistency around subgraphs. Most of the layout algorithms tend to do global layout when complex diagrams often times require different layout algorithms for different parts of the project.

	To fix this I'd do the following:
	* Allow true subgraph layout of nodes and edges completely contained in the subgraph. Allow users to easily mix and match layout algorithms in the same diagram.