Treemap version 0.02
====================

   Traditional representations of hiarchal information trees are very space
   consuming.  There is a large amount of redundant information and padding to
   convey the tree structure.

   Treemaps are representations of trees that use space-filling nested
   rectangles to convey the tree structure. 

   e.g., a directory tree:

      2       ./CVS/Root
      2       ./CVS/Repository
      2       ./CVS/Entries
      2       ./CVS/Entries.Log
      10      ./CVS
      2       ./Treemap/CVS/Root
      2       ./Treemap/CVS/Repository
      2       ./Treemap/CVS/Entries
      2       ./Treemap/CVS/Entries.Log
      .
      .
      .
      (goes on for 80 lines)

   e.g., a treemap of a directory tree:

    .-------------------------------.
    |             ROOT              |
    |.-----------..-------..-------.|
    ||ImUgly.ttf ||Treemap||  CVS  ||
    ||           ||.-----.||       ||
    ||           |||Input|||       ||
    ||           |||     || >-----< |
    ||           || >---< ||example||
    ||           |||Outpu|||       ||
    ||           ||`_____'||       ||
    |`-----------'`-------'`-------'|
    `-------------------------------'

   Raster output is much more useful (like a GIF, or PNG) than ascii, as the
   labels are scaled appropriately, and alpha transparency is used to show
   information that would otherwise be hidden.

INSTALLATION

   To install this module type the following:

      perl Makefile.PL
      make
      make test
      make install

DEPENDENCIES

   This module requires these other modules and libraries:

      Imager
         Currently we are only support freetype2 for labelling. Expect Treemap
         to explode if you don't build Imager with freetype2 support.

      XML::Simple 
         One pre-requisite it doesn't seem to include of it's own regard when
         being installed is LWP::UserAgent

GOTCHAS

   When using Treemap::Output::Imager, you may get the mysterious error
   message:

   Can't call method "bounding_box" on an undefined value at
   /usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0/Treemap/Output/Imager.pm line 330.

   What it's really saying is, "we couldn't find your true type font."

THE FUTURE

   Output Modules: Postscript/PDF, Flash
   Input Modules: nntp

   ... and anything else we can build a tree hiarchy out of. Contributions
   welcomed!

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

   This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
   the same terms as Perl itself.

   (c)2003 Simon P. Ditner <simon@uc.org>, and Eric P. Maki <eric@uc.org>

   Original Treemap Concept: Ben Shneiderman <ben@cs.umd.edu>,
   http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap-history/index.shtml

   Squarified Treemap Concept: Visualization Group of the Technische
   Universiteit Eindhoven