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Software Evolution Storylines, Inspired By XKCD

Posted by timothy on from the top-that-with-sparklines dept.

jamie tips this mind-blowing data visualization concept from (naturally) data visualization researcher Michael Ogawa, who explains that it was inspired by "this XKCD comic. It represents characters as lines that converge in time as they share scenes. Could this technique be adapted for software developers who work on the same code?"

4 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Timeline... by geogob · · Score: 5, Funny

    I bet the Windows timeline looks like the one for Primer.

  2. Re:inspiration by Exitar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Probably he did, but citing xkcd granted him an article on /.

  3. He may have been inspired by XKCD by argStyopa · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...but XKCD pretty clearly was inspired by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wallchart_of_World_History (first version 1890).

    It's a pretty cool visualization, illustrating in a very superficial way how each state mutates and evolves politically into its descendants.

    --
    -Styopa
  4. Re:inspiration by Tanktalus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Generally speak, humor is found in the unexpected. If you don't expect to see that reference in the given context, and it is made, or if it's being applied in a context that is unexpected, that is funny. At least to the observer that both gets the reference and doesn't expect it.

    That said, SQL injection attacks are not only unexpected in a child's name, but I've forwarded that comic on to a number of developers of a large commercial database product (as well as many others) as a way to teach people to USE F*CKING PLACEHOLDERS. It has been fairly successful, I might add. After spending 15 minutes trying and failing to get across to them why "SELECT * FROM MYTABLE WHERE FOO = $foo" is bad, I go look up the xkcd comic and show it to them. In 30 seconds, xkcd's author gets across what I can't in 15 minutes over the phone (perhaps I could do it in person with a whiteboard to share).

    Now, maybe a troll will come along and say that I'm not a very good teacher. Although I have plenty of experience to the contrary, let's assume this to be true. My point still stands: those comics teach against SQL injection more effectively than I can, thus it's an invaluable tool. The unexpected reference makes it funny enough for me to remember it, the pointed truth of it makes it a good teaching tool.