On 2010-04-12 13:51-0700 David MacMahon wrote: > > On Apr 12, 2010, at 12:16 , Alan W. Irwin wrote: > >> I think it is time that we take advantage of that free map data rather than >> limiting ourselves to just the four map data files that are currently >> accessible from PLplot. Ideally the availability of free GIS data (along >> with changes to plmap to allow access to those data) should allow us to >> replace example 19 to provide examples of some really high-quality maps >> that >> are built directly from free GIS data by PLplot. > > I think this is a great idea! My only caution would be to watch out for > including too much GIS-specific functionality within PLplot. IMHO, it would > be preferable to use external (and externally maintained!) libraries if/when > possible.
Agreed. If somebody here decides to take this on, they should think very carefully about the goal here and also discuss that goal on list. To get some discussion going about what that goal should be, my own feeling, is we don't want to expand the PLplot API to the point where it is attempting to compete with the comprehensive GIS open source projects such as GRASS. Instead, I believe we just want some simple functionality that lets our users input 2-dimensional (e.g., outline maps like we have now only a lot more of them) or 3-dimensional (e.g., height versus position) GIS data and then lets our users play with that data in any way they like (say with plgrid) before plotting it with the remainder of the PLplot API. Assuming we agree on that simple goal, then all we need is some library to give us simple access to 2D and 3D GIS data. I just did a cursory search, and it appears there are at least two open-source libraries called OGDI and GDAL which allow access to GIS data. There may be more. Anyhow, I hope I have given the rest of you some food for thought here about mapping possibilities with PLplot and GIS data. Furthermore, I hope we get a good discussion going about exactly what people would like to see in example 19 which might help focus further discussion of exactly what the PLplot mapping API goals should be. Alan __________________________ Alan W. Irwin Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca). Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net). __________________________ Linux-powered Science __________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download Intel® Parallel Studio Eval Try the new software tools for yourself. Speed compiling, find bugs proactively, and fine-tune applications for parallel performance. See why Intel Parallel Studio got high marks during beta. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-sw-dev _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
