GIVE: a general interactive visualization environment

We present a data flow based software platform called GIVE (General Interactive Visualization Environment). GIVE owns a data flow kernel, a visual programming interface and an extensible module library. It greatly enhances the efficiency of building visualization programs. GIVE has the following distinctive features: it introduces control nodes and procedure nodes into traditional data flow architecture, so it can support complex ViSC application: it is a well opened environment, supported by two efficient interactive tools-GIVE/ME (Module Extender) and GIVE/DE (Data Extender)-which enables users to extend modules and data types into the system freely and conveniently; and it has a module library composed of varieties of modules. We first introduce several concepts of the data flow architecture, then describe the designation of GIVE, and finally discuss the implementation of GIVE.