Labeled radial drawing of data structures

Abstract

This paper describes a radial layout method for displaying B + -tree data structures. We present an algorithmic framework for computing the node positions that result in a planar drawing. Layout issues related to displaying the internal structure of the nodes are addressed. Each field value and associated pointer that comprises the internal structure of the node is considered a subnode. The drawing technique uses different polygonal shapes for the subnodes that allow curvature to the design. We discuss the layout of text labels for the fields of the nodes which provides good readability and which preserves the semantics of the data structure. The edge positioning shows the association of the pointers with their corresponding field label. The radial drawing of the B + -tree makes better use of the display space than the traditional hierarchical drawing.