Graph Theory is a topic that has interested me for a long time, and was one of my favorite topics in my college classes in object-oriented programming and discrete math. Besides writing proofs pertaining to graphs or doing graph-based algorithms such as Breadth First Search, I often thought of how some aspects world could be expressed as graphs and liked drawing my own graphs on paper.

As the graphs I imagined became more and more complex, it took me longer to draw them and the layout would be difficult to plan out. I then started wondering how graphs are quickly rendered in textbooks, and became interested in creating my own program to suit my needs. Thus, in summer 2024 I began working on a project called GraphLangZ. My goal was simple: make a program where any person regardless of prior programming experience can describe a graph with simple syntax, render it quickly, and share it with ease.

GraphLangZ was published in August 2024, with full-language documentation on its website. Visit the project page to begin creating your own graphs today!

GraphLangZ supports all of the following features:

• Physics force-based graph layout
• Automatically correcting unwanted node-edge intersections
• Zero randomness: same layout every time
• Concise "bracket" syntax allowing you to specify multiple nodes/edges in one line
• Allowing user to manually change node positions
• Highlight node's neighbors on-mouse-hover
• Display well on a variety of screen/window sizes
• Download graph as image
• Embed interactive graph in an iframe
• Various styles including node/edge colors

GraphLangZ is designed to be a simple graph description language. It has similarities to DOT, although there are differences in the syntax.