Alan Browne <
alan.browne@freelunchvideotron.ca>
writes:
Careful, I suspect you just agreed with him,
motivation wise ;)
Not at all. He wants to re-invent what others have
done quite well.
Well, I'm not exactly re-inventing anything but at
this point trying to use the GMT software which seems
to be incredibly powerful but also with a flat
learning curve.
But that is often something good in the end, just like
Emacs, Gnus, LaTeX, gnuplot, and such programs with
hefty manuals (or bookshelfs) to come with them...
Here is the Fatu Hiva map at its present state:
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/pics/fatu-hiva.png
Here is the script that generates it:
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/conf/.zsh/map
As you see, this allows you to create a map exactly to
your liking, including the color of the sea - #006994,
sea blue. Also note the Swedish "Stilla havet"
(meaning the Pacific Ocean) - you should know even in
very professional publications in Sweden today, maps
are often in Anglo-American even if the book is not!
So I'm already better in that respect.
Only, it would feel better if GMT could put the labels
there automatically, and I know it can, only at this
point I did it manually with convert because
I couldn't make it happen with GMT and I wanted to see
how it would look...
Now, I don't hide that I'm a perfectionist and that
I enjoy fiddling for hours with such details, *but*
I actually don't like to do it more than once.
When I get Fatu Hiva right, God willing, I hope to do
considerably less work on Hiva Oe and any other island
or map I'd like. At that point, optimally it is only
a matter of making a copy of the zsh function,
renaming it, changing the coordinates and labels, and
getting the new island with minimal work to it!
An example of this principle is actually the very
articles I write. Here is the Mount Everest article:
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/articles/latex/everest.pdf
With that article, I spent *weeks* with the LaTeX and
Biblatex and everything in between. But now, take
a look at the Kon-Tiki article (which is done, save
for the maps) -
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573/articles/kon-tiki/kon-tiki.pdf
You see? Almost identical design but this time I just
yanked the new text from a text file into the existing
LaTeX, did some adjustments, and compiled!
His primary goal is to write a historical paper.
Getting side tracked on s/w techniques to generate
maps appears to me to be a distraction from his
goal. Were he writing a paper on generating maps
that would be another kettle of fish.
Well, actually, I hope to write *tons* of these kind
of articles because they are very appreciated - to
have a program that could generate just about any map
from my fingertips would be a dream! Also maps are not
only geographical but can also show temperature,
underwater currents, you name it. It would just be an
awesome thing to have!
--
underground experts united ....
http://user.it.uu.se/~embe8573
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