Leonard Will's helpful reply pointed to Thesaurofacet and BSI ROOT
Thesaurus, both masterminded by Jean Aitchison. All of her thesauri
have systematic displays in the style you describe. (Although all were
designed for output in print, with only a limited range of types of
display) The secret, when building them, is to build up the systematic
display as you go, but at each hierarchical indentation you have to add
a code to indicate whether the subordinate term is a 'true' NT or just
an RT. In principle, you could differentiate the relationship types
still further, and you could arrange for more graphical forms of
electronic display.
The TinTerm software was customised to support this type of construction
method, but it has no vendor to support it and is no longer a practical
option. There is nothing else commercially available to do the job on a
desktop PC, unless you sacrifice quite a lot of the other features of a
thesaurus.... but if you are thinking of developing a package, please
let us all know!
Stella Dextre Clarke
*****************************************************
Stella Dextre Clarke
Information Consultant
Luke House, West Hendred, Wantage, Oxon, OX12 8RR, UK
Tel: 01235-833-298
Fax: 01235-863-298
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-----Original Message-----
From: Chartered Library and Information Professionals
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter M. Adams
Sent: 13 March 2004 17:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Hierarchical displays.
Greetings one and all!
Does anyone out there have experience with creating graphical displays
to show hierarchies of keywords that pertain to a group of related
topics in a thesaurus? What I have in mind is more than a standard BT-NT
tree (or indented list) because it should be able to encompass more than
one related tree in the same display, and also to group together terms
within a single hierarchy that are conceptually related even though this
is not formally identifiable from BTs and NTs.
It would probably start from a file containing BTs and NTs, but allow
you to rearrange the order and layout of the terms and hierarchies.
Does this ring any bells with anyone? All suggestions gratefully
received!
Regards,
Peter A
--
Peter M Adams
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