On March 23, Dave Winer asked people to try to re-create this tree chart using just HTML and a small amount of images.

I had a problem similar to this one about a year ago when I had to generate a tree structure using HTML for a "March Madness" -type game. That tree was easier because each parent node had exactly two children, so the structure was pretty standard.

This table structure uses no graphics -- it's all tables and CSS. It was generated by hand, but I hope to build a renderer this weekend that can build it from a data structure.

The problems that I see with this structure are:

1. Each parent box is as long as the combined length of all of it's child boxes. This could be a plus, though, since it is another visual way to illustrate the parent-child relationship.
2. The boxes all seem to have a limited width, i.e. the text always wraps. I'm sure there's something I can do about the cell/table widths that can cure that.

Anyway, I hope I can find a practical use for this kind of structure, and I'm curious to see what Dave wants to do with it.

-- Mark Kennedy, mark@markkennedy.addr.com