[SnapPea-planning] Fwd: Kirby diagram software project

[Bill Thurston]

Hi Snappea-planners,
	I just received this message, which I'll let speak for itself.   It  
looks to me like a promising project, which should probably at least  
be coordinated with the snappea project, perhaps merely to establish  
some standard file formats or exchange methods, but perhaps even to  
ultimately fold the projects together.  I sent back a short note  
mentioning the snappea project, but Nathaniel and others doing actual  
coding should probably think of the desired relationship and be in  
touch with him.
	Bill
Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Swenton, Frank" <fswenton at middlebury.edu>
> Date: September 7, 2009 6:38:28 AM EDT
> To: "gompf at math.utexas.edu" <gompf at math.utexas.edu>, "stipsicz at renyi.hu 
> " <stipsicz at renyi.hu>, "saveliev at math.miami.edu" <saveliev at math.miami.edu 
> >, "akbulut at math.msu.edu" <akbulut at math.msu.edu>, "s.donaldson at imperial.ac.uk 
> " <s.donaldson at imperial.ac.uk>, "kronheim at math.harvard.edu" <kronheim at math.harvard.edu 
> >, "kirby at math.berkeley.edu" <kirby at math.berkeley.edu>, "dusa at math.columbia.edu 
> " <dusa at math.columbia.edu>, "jm at math.columbia.edu" <jm at math.columbia.edu 
> >, "mrowka at math.mit.edu" <mrowka at math.mit.edu>,  
> "wpt at math.cornell.edu" <wpt at math.cornell.edu>, "szabo at math.princeton.edu 
> " <szabo at math.princeton.edu>, "petero at columbia.edu" <petero at columbia.edu 
> >, "eliash at math.stanford.edu" <eliash at math.stanford.edu>, "ronfint at math.msu.edu 
> " <ronfint at math.msu.edu>, "rstern at uci.edu" <rstern at uci.edu>
> Subject: Kirby diagram software project
>
> Dear Professors,
>
> I'm in the early stages of writing a software package (to be freely  
> available) for the manipulation of Kirby diagrams, and I'm trying to  
> get in touch with as many low-dimensional topologists as possible in  
> order to help determine the best direction for the work.
>
> An early alpha-version of the program is up and running in order to  
> give some sense of where the project is generally headed.  Though  
> currently only minimally functional, and with a fairly unpolished  
> user interface, it does allow input and easy visual, error-free  
> manipulation of Kirby diagrams, complete with undo/redo  
> capabilities, Reidemeister and meta-Reidemeister moves, blow-ups (at  
> clasps) and blow-downs (of unknotted $\pm1$ components with no  
> crossings in their interior), handle-slides, etc.; you can see some  
> examples at the following URL, which forwards to a page at  
> Middlebury College:
>
>                    http://www.kirbycalculator.net
>
> The software will eventually allow the user to save and load  
> diagrams or sequences of manipulations, export the diagrams, and  
> perform a wider variety of manipulations.  In addition, while the  
> current version uses a traditional circle-packing method for drawing  
> the diagrams (which has its disadvantages), the intent is for the  
> final version to be a bit more flexible and allow visual arrangement  
> of the diagrams as the user sees fit; on this subject, it is  
> important to note that all diagram manipulations are done in a  
> purely combinatorial manner, with floating-point math used only for  
> their visual presentation.
>
> In the long run, the program will allow increasingly more complex  
> manipulations and is planned to implement automated searches for  
> manipulations that achieve some goal, etc. (depending on what  
> direction the project is pushed by the target group of users).  If  
> there is demand for handling of related aspects, such as Legendrian  
> diagrams or paired-ball representation of 1-handles (currently  
> implemented via dotted components), I would be happy to hear wherein  
> such interest lies.
>
> This "Kirby Calculator" is the subject of an NSF grant proposal  
> currently in preparation, and with NSF support it will become a  
> multi-year project (with much work taking place during my sabbatical  
> in the 2010-11 academic year).  In addition to getting general  
> feedback from the target group of users, I'm hoping to eventually  
> gather some statements to include in the proposal, addressing the  
> general or specific ways in which this tool could aid in current  
> research in topology.  This project has grown out of software that  
> I've written and used as a tool for my joint work on knot  
> classification with John Conway, and I believe that this Kirby  
> Calculator would be a very useful direction to push the core knot  
> code; but in order to make a strong proposal, some more direct  
> statements as to such a tool's impact on research would be very  
> useful (this is not directly my area of research, but I'm well- 
> positioned to create what I hope will be a very useful tool for  
> those whose area it is).
>
> If you believe that such a project could potentially be useful in  
> your research, I would very much like to hear your input, and if you  
> know of others who might be interested, please do forward this  
> message along!
>
> Many thanks for your time,
>
> Frank Swenton
> Associate Professor of Mathematics
> Middlebury College
> fswenton at middlebury.edu
> 802-443-3421 (Office)
> 917-838-4761 (Cell)
>
>
> P.S.  In case the College's servers go down (today is the first day  
> of classes), here are YouTube links to the four example videos from  
> the webpage:
>
> Example 1 (basic interface)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FugRe19xCzU
> Example 2 (a bit more and a blow-up)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbXxxYwXrC0
> Example 3 (less talking, to show ease and speed)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bij01ZZQYgU
> Example 4 (involving an explicit handle-slide)    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3RphoXszzs

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