Re: geographic plotting

[Ethan A M. <me...@uw...>]

On Wednesday, 4 March 2020 12:34:45 PST Allin Cottrell wrote:
> On Wed, 4 Mar 2020, Manfred Schwarb wrote:
> 
> > More to the topic, I think the shape format is proprietary, 
> > complicated, spread over multiple files, limited (number of 
> > fields, length of field names, file size,...), so in one word: 
> > "legacy".
> >
> > So I don't think it is an appropriate format for interfacing with 
> > gnuplot. I made positive experiences with GeoJSON, it is a simple, 
> > very versatile format, and I think most GIS programs can read and 
> > write this format, so why not use some geojson routine and put it 
> > into gnuplot?
> 
> I'm all in favor of nicer and non-proprietary formats, but what's 
> the comparison in terms of availability of files representing 
> polygons one might want (US states, counties or commuting zones, EU 
> countries or regions, etc.)? It's my impression that you can easily 
> pick up shapefiles for any/all of these -- nasty as the format may 
> be -- but what about GeoJSON files?
> 
> Allin Cottrell

Good call.  Geojson looks quite promising.
A real parser should be easy, but even a quick pass through sed
or a text editor makes it usable.
I have posted a proof-of-principle example using US state boundary
data from a sample file on the geojson development site:

  http://skuld.bmsc.washington.edu/people/merritt/gnuplot/

	Ethan