Zooming and tunneling in Tioga: supporting navigation in multidimensional space

In [STON93] we proposed a visual programming system called Tioga. The Tioga system applies a boxes and arrows programming notation to allow nonexpert users to graphically construct database applications. Users connect database procedures using a dataflow model. Browsers are used to visualize the resulting data. This paper describes extensions to the Tioga browser protocol. These extensions allow sophisticated, flight- simulator navigation through a multidimensional data space. This design also incorporates wormholes to allow tunneling between different multidimensional spaces. Wormholes are shown to be substantial generalizations of hyperlinks in a hypertext system. These powerful mechanisms for relating data provide users with great flexibility. For example, users can create magnifying glasses that provide an enhanced view of the underlying data