The Assistant Computer
List Input-data in GraphDataFile,
Create imput-data and store in GraphDataFile
Select from GraphDataFile input-data and use in a program
Complete understanding of many discussions in this volume (Volume F: Graph Theory) involves computation best done by a computer. It will need two things: (1) a program to tell it what to do, and (2) data: numerical information from a particular drawing of a graph. The program will have already been created. The data must be organized in an acceptable form and presented to the computer. The computer will look for a file "GraphDataFile.txt" which contains that data.
By following instructions in the program the computer will accept and process the data. Usually it will print out results in an understandable format. Both the formats of the input-data and the printouts will be explained in the discussions. Included here is an overall view.
The form (format) of the data requires the use of brackets [ ] between which is all the data. After the first bracket are letters.
[U = graph with Undirected links, a Ugraph
[T = Ugraph that is a tree
[UW = Ugraph where all links have weights on them
[D = graph with Directed links, a Digraph
[DW = Digraph where all links have weights on them