gnuplot-beta

country borders on 2d-world

[Valerio S. <val...@gm...>]

Hello,
it is known that drawing a 2D map of the world is possible:
- http://www.gnuplotting.org/plotting-the-world-revisited/
- http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo/world.html

But, suppose that I want to:
- also show the country/nation/state borders and
- some of the country/nation/states need to be highlighted somehow (a
different filling color than plain white would be ideal)

Ideally there would be several groups of country/nation/states sharing the
same filling colours

Has anyone ever attempted at this ?
Suggestions ?

Thanks,
--
Valerio

Re: country borders on 2d-world

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

On 10/21/2015 07:02 PM, Valerio Schiavoni wrote:
> Hello,
> it is known that drawing a 2D map of the world is possible:
> - http://www.gnuplotting.org/plotting-the-world-revisited/
> - http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo/world.html
>
> But, suppose that I want to:
> - also show the country/nation/state borders and
> - some of the country/nation/states need to be highlighted somehow (a
> different filling color than plain white would be ideal)
>
> Ideally there would be several groups of country/nation/states sharing
> the same filling colours
>
> Has anyone ever attempted at this ?
> Suggestions ?

I've thought of doing such a thing:

http://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/mailman/message/26788631/

Although it isn't a type of plot I'd use in my field, it would be a 
really nice feature given how common this type of geographical "plot" 
with data points is today.  A command syntax is going to be the 
difficult part.  Defining the maps is another issue.  What if boundaries 
change?  Is there some type of universally accepted data format or 
descriptive language for map boundaries these days?

Dan


> Thanks,
> --
> Valerio

Re: country borders on 2d-world

[Juhász P. <pet...@gm...>]

On Thu, 2015-10-22 at 00:17 -0500, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
> On 10/21/2015 07:02 PM, Valerio Schiavoni wrote:
> > Hello,
> > it is known that drawing a 2D map of the world is possible:
> > - http://www.gnuplotting.org/plotting-the-world-revisited/
> > - http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo/world.html
> >
> > But, suppose that I want to:
> > - also show the country/nation/state borders and
> > - some of the country/nation/states need to be highlighted somehow (a
> > different filling color than plain white would be ideal)
> >
> > Ideally there would be several groups of country/nation/states sharing
> > the same filling colours
> >
> > Has anyone ever attempted at this ?
> > Suggestions ?
> 
> I've thought of doing such a thing:
> 
> http://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/mailman/message/26788631/
> 
> Although it isn't a type of plot I'd use in my field, it would be a 
> really nice feature given how common this type of geographical "plot" 
> with data points is today.  A command syntax is going to be the 
> difficult part.  Defining the maps is another issue.  What if boundaries 
> change?  Is there some type of universally accepted data format or 
> descriptive language for map boundaries these days?
> 
> Dan
> 

Two more issues that count against including high-resolution map data
into gnuplot itself:

- licensing
- data size

In more detail:

The first link in the OP refers to
http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/ , where you can eventually
download datasets for continent, lake and country boundaries in three
different resolutions. It says that the dataset is in the public domain,
which means that it's fine if you want to produce maps with it on your
own, and it may be fine for inclusion into gnuplot (but IANAL).
The highest resolution dataset that includes country borders is >5 MB
compressed, which is comparable to the current size of gnuplot's binary
package.

There is also GSHHG, http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhg/ , which
is used by software packages such as GMT or IDL, however, its license is
LGPL, which is not compatible with gnuplot's license - or is it?
The entire package is above 100 MB which precludes its inclusion (but it
contains lower resolution datasets that are likely smaller).


> "Is there some type of universally accepted data format or descriptive
> language for map boundaries these days?"

Universally accepted? I don't think so. 
However, there are many competing, widely recognized formats, ESRI
Shapefile being perhaps the most used.


Peter

Re: country borders on 2d-world

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

On 10/22/2015 01:47 PM, Juhász Péter wrote:
> On Thu, 2015-10-22 at 00:17 -0500, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
>> On 10/21/2015 07:02 PM, Valerio Schiavoni wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> it is known that drawing a 2D map of the world is possible:
>>> - http://www.gnuplotting.org/plotting-the-world-revisited/
>>> - http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo/world.html
>>>
>>> But, suppose that I want to:
>>> - also show the country/nation/state borders and
>>> - some of the country/nation/states need to be highlighted somehow (a
>>> different filling color than plain white would be ideal)
>>>
>>> Ideally there would be several groups of country/nation/states sharing
>>> the same filling colours
>>>
>>> Has anyone ever attempted at this ?
>>> Suggestions ?
>>
>> I've thought of doing such a thing:
>>
>> http://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/mailman/message/26788631/
>>
>> Although it isn't a type of plot I'd use in my field, it would be a
>> really nice feature given how common this type of geographical "plot"
>> with data points is today.  A command syntax is going to be the
>> difficult part.  Defining the maps is another issue.  What if boundaries
>> change?  Is there some type of universally accepted data format or
>> descriptive language for map boundaries these days?
>>
>> Dan
>>
>
> Two more issues that count against including high-resolution map data
> into gnuplot itself:
>
> - licensing
> - data size
>
> In more detail:
>
> The first link in the OP refers to
> http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/ , where you can eventually
> download datasets for continent, lake and country boundaries in three
> different resolutions. It says that the dataset is in the public domain,
> which means that it's fine if you want to produce maps with it on your
> own, and it may be fine for inclusion into gnuplot (but IANAL).
> The highest resolution dataset that includes country borders is>5 MB
> compressed, which is comparable to the current size of gnuplot's binary
> package.

Well, I would think including the data itself would be out of the 
question.  Having it accessible is the important thing.  But judging the 
contents of that website parts of it seem relevant.  The "cultural" maps 
(i.e., vector outlines of countries) seem most pertinent.  In the zip 
files I see DBF files as the largest component.  The ESRI you pointed 
out below uses DBF.


> There is also GSHHG, http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhg/ , which
> is used by software packages such as GMT or IDL, however, its license is
> LGPL, which is not compatible with gnuplot's license - or is it?
> The entire package is above 100 MB which precludes its inclusion (but it
> contains lower resolution datasets that are likely smaller).

Here it looks like the World Vector Shorelines data is most useful.


>> "Is there some type of universally accepted data format or descriptive
>> language for map boundaries these days?"
>
> Universally accepted? I don't think so.
> However, there are many competing, widely recognized formats, ESRI
> Shapefile being perhaps the most used.

I wasn't aware of ESRI; interesting stuff.  Thanks.

It would be a big project, and I still wonder about combining the map 
data with a 1) plot and 2) statistical data in a way that is easy to use.

Dan

Re: country borders on 2d-world

[Ethan A M. <sf...@us...>]

On Thursday, 22 October, 2015 20:47:37 Juhász Péter wrote:
> On Thu, 2015-10-22 at 00:17 -0500, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
> > 
> > Although it isn't a type of plot I'd use in my field, it would be a 
> > really nice feature given how common this type of geographical "plot" 
> > with data points is today.  A command syntax is going to be the 
> > difficult part.  Defining the maps is another issue.  What if boundaries 
> > change?  Is there some type of universally accepted data format or 
> > descriptive language for map boundaries these days?
> > 
> > Dan
> > 
> 
> Two more issues that count against including high-resolution map data
> into gnuplot itself:
> 
> - licensing
> - data size

You may be responding to a message I haven't seen yet, but...
I don't think Dan's comment implied incorporating the map data itself
into gnuplot.  The idea, I think, is that if there are standard formats
for map data we might provide support for these to make it easier to
read from external files.  Analogous to the way we handle image formats:
   plot 'foo.png' binary filetype=png

I don't know whether this would be useful or not.  The external files
might require so much pre-processing that the syntax of the final plot
command is not an issue.

	Ethan

 
> In more detail:
> 
> The first link in the OP refers to
> http://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/ , where you can eventually
> download datasets for continent, lake and country boundaries in three
> different resolutions. It says that the dataset is in the public domain,
> which means that it's fine if you want to produce maps with it on your
> own, and it may be fine for inclusion into gnuplot (but IANAL).
> The highest resolution dataset that includes country borders is >5 MB
> compressed, which is comparable to the current size of gnuplot's binary
> package.
> 
> There is also GSHHG, http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/pwessel/gshhg/ , which
> is used by software packages such as GMT or IDL, however, its license is
> LGPL, which is not compatible with gnuplot's license - or is it?
> The entire package is above 100 MB which precludes its inclusion (but it
> contains lower resolution datasets that are likely smaller).
> 
> 
> > "Is there some type of universally accepted data format or descriptive
> > language for map boundaries these days?"
> 
> Universally accepted? I don't think so. 
> However, there are many competing, widely recognized formats, ESRI
> Shapefile being perhaps the most used.
> 
> 
> Peter
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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> gnuplot-beta mailing list
> gnu...@li...
> Membership management via: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/gnuplot-beta

Re: country borders on 2d-world

[Juhász P. <pet...@gm...>]

On Thu, 2015-10-22 at 12:37 -0700, Ethan A Merritt wrote:
> On Thursday, 22 October, 2015 20:47:37 Juhász Péter wrote:
> > On Thu, 2015-10-22 at 00:17 -0500, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
> > > 
> > > Although it isn't a type of plot I'd use in my field, it would be a 
> > > really nice feature given how common this type of geographical "plot" 
> > > with data points is today.  A command syntax is going to be the 
> > > difficult part.  Defining the maps is another issue.  What if boundaries 
> > > change?  Is there some type of universally accepted data format or 
> > > descriptive language for map boundaries these days?
> > > 
> > > Dan
> > > 
> > 
> > Two more issues that count against including high-resolution map data
> > into gnuplot itself:
> > 
> > - licensing
> > - data size
> 
> You may be responding to a message I haven't seen yet, but...
> I don't think Dan's comment implied incorporating the map data itself
> into gnuplot.  The idea, I think, is that if there are standard formats
> for map data we might provide support for these to make it easier to
> read from external files.  Analogous to the way we handle image formats:
>    plot 'foo.png' binary filetype=png
> 
> I don't know whether this would be useful or not.  The external files
> might require so much pre-processing that the syntax of the final plot
> command is not an issue.
> 
> 	Ethan
> 

Well, he didn't imply that, however, the OP wanted a simple way to
produce geographical plots that include country borders. To do that
reliably, you have to have a proven, known dataset. What you are saying
(adding support for one or more of the de facto standard GIS formats) is
only halfway there - and even that raises the question of which
format(s) to support, and to what extent.

IMHO that alone doesn't worth the effort, as it doesn't provide real
benefits compared to the situation that we have now, that is, if you
want to produce nice, detailed maps, you get the data from wherever you
can, in any format you can, you convert it with some external tools to a
format that gnuplot can use, then plot it yourself.

We might turn to systems such as R for inspiration: there the creation
of maps is supported in the form of add-on packages, e.g.
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/maps/index.html
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/mapdata/index.html

However, gnuplot does not support add-on packages like that and I think
that's a can of worms we don't want to open right now.

Peter

Re: country borders on 2d-world

[Daniel J S. <dan...@ie...>]

On 10/23/2015 06:13 AM, Juhász Péter wrote:
> On Thu, 2015-10-22 at 12:37 -0700, Ethan A Merritt wrote:
>> On Thursday, 22 October, 2015 20:47:37 Juhász Péter wrote:
>>> On Thu, 2015-10-22 at 00:17 -0500, Daniel J Sebald wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Although it isn't a type of plot I'd use in my field, it would be a
>>>> really nice feature given how common this type of geographical "plot"
>>>> with data points is today.  A command syntax is going to be the
>>>> difficult part.  Defining the maps is another issue.  What if boundaries
>>>> change?  Is there some type of universally accepted data format or
>>>> descriptive language for map boundaries these days?
>>>>
>>>> Dan
>>>>
>>>
>>> Two more issues that count against including high-resolution map data
>>> into gnuplot itself:
>>>
>>> - licensing
>>> - data size
>>
>> You may be responding to a message I haven't seen yet, but...
>> I don't think Dan's comment implied incorporating the map data itself
>> into gnuplot.  The idea, I think, is that if there are standard formats
>> for map data we might provide support for these to make it easier to
>> read from external files.  Analogous to the way we handle image formats:
>>     plot 'foo.png' binary filetype=png
>>
>> I don't know whether this would be useful or not.  The external files
>> might require so much pre-processing that the syntax of the final plot
>> command is not an issue.
>>
>> 	Ethan
>>
>
> Well, he didn't imply that, however, the OP wanted a simple way to
> produce geographical plots that include country borders. To do that
> reliably, you have to have a proven, known dataset. What you are saying
> (adding support for one or more of the de facto standard GIS formats) is
> only halfway there - and even that raises the question of which
> format(s) to support, and to what extent.
>
> IMHO that alone doesn't worth the effort, as it doesn't provide real
> benefits compared to the situation that we have now, that is, if you
> want to produce nice, detailed maps, you get the data from wherever you
> can, in any format you can, you convert it with some external tools to a
> format that gnuplot can use, then plot it yourself.
>
> We might turn to systems such as R for inspiration: there the creation
> of maps is supported in the form of add-on packages, e.g.
> https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/maps/index.html
> https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/mapdata/index.html
>
> However, gnuplot does not support add-on packages like that and I think
> that's a can of worms we don't want to open right now.

There is an R manual associated with the package:

https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/maps/maps.pdf

but I'm not going to take the time to read it right now.  But this R 
package has gone all out as far as databases with intriguing names like 
"spacetime", etc.

As I see it, gnuplot should bring the benefit of easily overlaying data 
on a geospatial map in order to convey statistical, survey, or other 
types of data.  For example, someone may want to use the size of a dot 
(which gnuplot has) to illustrate the number of museums in major U.S. 
cities.  Or perhaps the user wants to show registered voters by state 
using color variation to illustrate party affiliation.  That sort of thing.

I could imagine a special plot mode "geospatial" akin to something like 
"polar" that changes the underlying coordinate system to, say, latitude 
and longitude or whatever.  Given a database, gnuplot might figure out 
the lat/long data or vector boundary data behind the scenes, making the 
task of plotting easy for the user.  So it might be:

(Data I'm making up...)

set geospatial bigdatabasefile.esri
plot '-' using 1:2 with filledcircles title "Museum Count"
"Los Angeles" 123
"New York" 217
"Philadelphia" 132
"Chicago" 194
"Washington D.C." 732
end

Dan