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Treemaps

In case you don't already know, SpaceMonger's display-layout system is not unique; it uses a technique called treemaps that were originally developed at the University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory by Dr. Ben Shneiderman, all the way back in 1989. Dr. Shneiderman is a well-known force in user-interface-design circles. Treemaps have found their way into a few different products, but for no readily apparent reason, they don't really seem to have made it very far outside academia.

I am pleased to say that I have received permission from Dr. Shneiderman to use his wonderful treemap concept in SpaceMonger. SpaceMonger doesn't use any of his code or anyone else's code, and it doesn't use his layout algorithms either, but it does use the concept. Thank you for your permission, Dr. Shneiderman!

You can learn more about treemaps on his very complete Treemaps Page.