History

I also noticed that (also for myself) it is good to note down some history of the project:

  • It all started out in 2017 with the need for graphically representing some argumentation at work. I wrote a tiny Python script that used a jinja template to transform the YAML syntax into something Graphviz could understand.

    From there Graphviz could generate different output formats. That's where the x in gsn2x is from.

  • It got obvious that some validation, especially on the uniqueness and reference resolution is needed to handle larger argumentation.

    I did not want to write those validations in Python, but in my favorite programming language Rust. I released the first Rust version in July 2021.

  • I desperately tried adding the modular extension by convincing Graphviz to draw what I want, but I failed. I finally made decided to no longer output DOT, but directly generate SVGs from the program. This required writing a specialized version for rendering the tree on my own which ended up in version 2 finally released in April 2022.

  • I tried hard improving the layout algorithm over time but I failed to come up with a satisfying solution. Moreover, I recognized that it is anyway preferable if the user is in full control of the layout of the diagram. Thus, I decided to redesign the layout algorithm and create version 3. A new major version was needed because of different user input that is required now.

    In addition, I changed the license from CC-BY-4.0 to MIT. MIT is shorter and more applicable to software.

  • Own usage and feedback from various people led to improvements of the layout algorithm. And now also to the implementation of the Confidence Argument Extension of the GSN standard as part of version 3.1.

Any feedback, especially the use-case in your company is very much appreciated.