Hello,
This is a report on the latest changes and additions to package draw.
Since there are some incompatibilities with previous versions, I think
the following lines will help to avoid mistakes and misunderstandings.
* Now, draw always writes two files: maxout.gnuplot (gnuplot
preamble and command) and data.gnuplot (numeric data). In
non windows systems, Maxima calls gnuplot via pipes, but
the only command is now 'load maxima.gnuplot'. I reached
the limits of piping with the new geomap object and this
trick fixes the problem. This change also lets zooming
in windows (I think).
* I have reorganized the documentation on draw. You can ask
for information on both graphic options and objects:
? point_type, ? image, ? geomap, etc.
* 2D points: if you give object 'points a list of numbers,
abscissas are automatically set to consecutive positive
integers: points([2,6,2,9]) plots [1,2],[2,6],
[3,2] and [4,9].
* 2D & 3D label: each string, together with its coordinates,
must be enclosed between brackets. Now you can write as many
labels as you want calling 'label only once, as in
label(["hi",0,0],["you",1,1]). label("hi",0,0) returns an
error, but label(["hi",0,0]) is correct.
* Package 'picture added. This gives basic support for
image processing and reads picture files in xpm format.
This package is (very) unstable and not well suited for
rendering large photos. You can build a picture object from a
matrix or from an xpm file and pass it to 'image, as in
draw2d(image(read_xpm("myfile.xpm"),0,0,10,10)).
Package 'picture is automatically loaded with 'draw.
See examples in
http://www.telefonica.net/web2/biomates/maxima/gpdraw/image
* New 2D graphic object geomap for drawing maps. Examples in
http://www.telefonica.net/web2/biomates/maxima/gpdraw/geomap
Notes on geomap:
- Some boundaries and islands are controversial. I tried to
define countries according to the borders recognized by
the United Nations. Please, don't feel offended due to
my mistakes and/or ignorance.
- The WBD (public domain World Boundaries Database) doesn't
contain borders for Eritrea.
- I have assigned the antarctic islands to the Antarctica
variable. Not sure if this is 100% correct.
- The WBD doesn't separate european and asian Russia,
that's why I haven't included Russia as an european
country.
- The WDB contains some lakes not yet included here.
- When drawing countries as coloured polygons, don't forget
that some countries are completely surrounded by other
countries: San_Marino by Italy and Lesotho by South_Africa.
- File share/wdb.lisp contains boundary coordinates as lisp
arrays, and in share/worldmap.map are the country and
continent definitions.
* All the above changes are included in doc/info/draw.texi,
but the Spanish documentation will be commited before
the next release of Maxima, together with some other minor changes.
Happy drawing!
--
Mario Rodriguez Riotorto
www.biomates.net