Graphviz---random node order and edges going through labels

Question

I have the following dot file:

digraph finite_state_machine {
    {
        rank=same;
        node [shape = doublecircle]; q_5;
        node [shape = circle         


        

Answer 1

Graphviz does lay out the nodes depending on the edge between each other, and not in order of appearance. If you want an edge not to influence the position of any node, you can do this by adding constraint=false.

Therefore, this graph:

digraph finite_state_machine {
  pad=0.2;
    {
        rank=same;
        node [shape = doublecircle]; q_5;
        node [shape = circle];
        q_1 -> q_2 [ label = "." ];
        q_1 -> q_2 [ label = "\epsilon", constraint=false ];
        q_2 -> q_1 [ label = "\epsilon", constraint=false ];
        q_2 -> q_3 [ label = "a" ];
        q_3 -> q_4 [ label = "^\wedge a" ];
        q_3 -> q_4 [ label = "\epsilon", constraint=false ];
        q_4 -> q_3 [ label = "\epsilon", constraint=false ];
        q_4 -> q_5 [ label = "b" ];
    }
}

Will get you:

I had to add pad in order to not have some of the labels cut off.