(After Inalcik, pp. 204-205)

Applets offer visual evidence of temporal pattern. When the line segments joining adjacent rectangles are scaled according to time, additional information is transformed into a spatial format. Another interesting view of the applet is as a dynamic object that represents the stability, or lack thereof, in a system. Scramble the applet; does it settle down to a steady state? The size of the bounding box helps to determine the steadiness of the system--there are many parallels to these ideas in human systems. Move the red box, the "start" around--try moving it to the lower right corner of the display. Move other parts of the applet as you wish, to expose names or genealogical structure.  Notice the strong linear pattern in earlier times with more fragmentation of pattern in more recent times.