Graph Drawing: Algorithms for the Visualization of Graphs

Rating:
Summary: Who is this book for?
Review: I am a mathematician/computer scientist quite interested in the subject matter, but the book is almost useless, since it mostly discusses ad hoc methods, and avoids proving any of the actual theorems in the subject. Unfortunate, since there is certainly room for a good book on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Good Theory .. but
Review: The book has a solid theoretical explanation of most of the popular graph drawing algorithms. So, if you want an explanation of these algorithms from a mathematical point of view, this book is for you.

If you are like me, and want to approach these problems from an 'algorithmic' viewpoint. I.e I want to know how to write planarization, Orthogonal layout algorithms... This book will disappoint you big time...Most of the algorithms are presented in a mathematical form (not a psuedocode form).. It is a huge leap to convert algorithms in this book to code.

Overall, I rate this book a 3 because, it is the ONLY book on this subject. Therefore, I cant compare it with anything else.

My advice is :- math major = BUY, computer major = PASS, after all this book is not cheap -

Rating:
Summary: Not useful for me, maybe for other people
Review: To me the book is not useful, because I need to draw graphs in which the distance between two connected vertices is fixed. The book doesn't mention any method to handle graphs with such a restriction, although the chapter on force-directed methods inspired me to use something similar. If you draw graphs without that restriction, the book might be useful to you - that's why I'm careful and give it 4 stars.

I disagree with Viv. R who said it doesn't contain pseudo code, because the book contains quite some of it, though not in every chapter. But even lack of pseudo code doesn't bother me, because for an experienced mathematical programmer that should be no problem.

Rating:
Summary: Very complete, authoritative
Review: Well organized, very complete, authoritative. Thanks to the authors for compiling and adding to a most interesting and valuable area of study.