Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
consisting of designing, writing, testing, debug-
ging, and maintaining the source code of computer
programs written in one or more of languages.
For example, to produce dynamic web pages, a
general-purpose server-side scripting language
is PHP. The open source database management
system MySQL (Structured Query Language) is
used in Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, Twitter,
Nokia, You Tube, and other large-scale web prod-
ucts. It was developed, distributed, and supported
by Oracle Corporation, which runs as a server
providing multi-user access to databases for use
in web applications. A compiler may be needed,
which is a (non-interactive) computer program
that transforms the language of a source code into
another (target) language to create an executable
file (not just general data file) that can perform a
task according to instructions.
Open source content management platforms
such as Drupal serve for powering websites,
building personal blogs, or enterprise applica-
tions. WordPress, a free open source blogging
tool and dynamic content management system
for websites is based on PHP and MySQL. They
may support general coders writing software who
are not specialists in a particular area as the com-
puter programmers, web or software developers,
and bridge their work with programmer analysts
using specific language such as C, C++, Java,
Lisp, Python, etc., who have also other software
engineering skills. Thus the introduction of inter-
activity into users' communication may be done
faster, easier, and more efficiently.
information may be shown as drawings, plans,
sketches, outlines, graphs, algebraic or geometric
relationships, maps, photographs, designs and
patterns, family trees, diagrams, architectural or
engineering blueprints, bar charts and pie charts,
typography, schematics, line art, flowcharts, and
many other image forms. They are designed to
represent the ideas, enhance, entertain, educate,
or evoke emotion (W3C, Graphics, 2012).
Each year trillions (10
12
) of images of sta-
tistical graphics are printed or displayed on the
web. The amount and variety of data we may
encounter online may be overwhelming, as there
are currently billions of web pages available and
this number is increasing by millions pages per
day. When we look for data on the Internet, we
get words, addresses, links, and other kinds of
written information. A need for handling this
amount of information resulted in the advent of
the network culture that unifies, according to
Manuel Lima (2011), the two rising disciplines
- network science (that examines intercon-
nections of natural or artificial systems) and
information visualization (that translates data
into meaningful information thus bridging data
and knowledge). Surfing the web, data mining,
and manipulating the data are made simpler
when a collection of facts or data is shown
with the use of information visualization and
interactive techniques adding more dimensions
to web presentation. The network-based design
reflects diversity, decentralization, and nonlin-
earity of data. According to Lima (2011), the
purpose of network visualization is to document
(record the surveyed structure for posterior
knowledge), clarify (explain in a simple, effec-
tive way important areas of the system, reveal
(find a hidden pattern causality, relationships,
and correlations), expand (for other uses, mul-
tidimensional behaviors, further explorations),
and abstract (for hypothetical and metaphori-
cal expression, depicting intangible concepts).
Web Presentation with
Graphics or Numbers
Computer generated data graphics, which are
omnipresent on the Web, serve to describe, ex-
plore, and summarize information in the form of
the data. Information is usually presented on the
web in numerical or graphic (or diagrammatic)
form. When expressed as web graphics, factual
