This project is an experiment in visualizing code development using the amazing d3 JavaScript library and the github REST api.
It was conceived at the 2012 Java Posse Roundup, an amazing gathering of talented developers from around the world. The developers at the Roundup used github to collaborate on many different interesting projects - too many for any one person to fully participate in.
I was consequently inspired to see if I could use the d3 JavaScript library to create a visualization of all the work the Roundup developers had accompished (or at least all the work they'd committed to github). This is the result.
To use this project, simple clone this github repository and open the commits.html file in your web browser. The d3 library is available in the root directory, so there's no need to install it (or anything else).
To see the d3github visualizer in use without cloning/downloading the project, look at this example on bl.ocks.org.
The d3 library uses the CSS Selectors API Level 1 and SVG, which may not be supported in older browsers. This code in this project has been verified to work with Google Chrome (verison 17.0), Firefox (11.0), and Safari (5.1), but not with Internet Explorer. The minimum versions that should work are Chrome 4.0, Firefox 3.5, Safari 3.2, and Internet Explorer 9.0.