RE: [matplotlib-devel] image module questions

[Perry G. <pe...@st...>]

John Gill writes:

> Any other thoughts welcome...
>
> Not really related to images but...=20
>
> I've been thinking a bit about mapplotlib (no, that is not a typo).
>=20
> Quite often I find myself with numbers for different parts of the =
world=20
> that I want to map, shading regions different colours according to the =

> numbers.
>
> In fact, one of my early experiments with python and wxPython was to=20
> produce such a beast, but I'm not terribly happy with what I produced.
>
> matplotlib has lots of the goodies that mapplotlib would require:  it =
has=20
> axes you can zoom and scroll, is great a drawing coloured polygons and =
can=20
> do legends.
>
> The problem I've tended to run into with mapping projects has been =
getting=20
> shape files that aren't distributed under a restrictive licence.
>=20
> Anyway, is there any interest out there in a mapplotlib?
>
> John=20

Well, sort of though on our part the interest is more in plotting
things on a map of the sky than the Earth (though occasionally, we
need to do that also). For us the biggest issue is handling all
the possible map coordinate projections. I would assume that is
also something you would have to worry about. We've given some
thought about how to do that sort of thing (as well as do thing
like polar plots). This would be a generalization of the matplotlib
transform mechanism. It isn't a real high priority for us yet.
The image stuff that John is talking about is much higher priority.
But if you have any thoughts of expanding on matplotlib for this
and are planning to use something other than simple rectangular
coordinates, I'd be interested in understanding how you will handle
map projections.

Perry