What background knowledge is expected?
Basic familiarity with the Java programming language, including setting up and building Java projects. A knowledge of Swing or another similar user interface toolkit is also of great help for understanding some of the concepts behind prefuse and for integrating prefuse visualizations into larger applications. Experience with database systems is also helpful (especially if using the built-in prefuse expression language for data manipulation), but is not required (and you might even learn a bit about it by using prefuse!). If you are new to Java but still interested in exploring prefuse, one of the many Java books in print or tutorials available on the web will be of help. The use of an integrated development environment such as Eclipse, which greatly facilitates the process of both organizing and writing Java programs can save you a lot of headaches. If you are interested in writing new Renderer components to control the appearance of items on the screen, a little background on 2D compu
