Introduction

Simply put, rmap is a package that will allow you to generate images of the earth from a distance or fairly zoomed in. The code is a small C binary that reads a datafile of vectors to generate the image. The actual image is generated from the libgd library, which will either generate a gif, png, or jpeg based on the version of libgd and auxiliary libs you have. Please see the libgd documentation regarding any auxiliary libs your version might require. I've tried to make the code be intelligent when you run configure, but I've not done much testing of it yet.

The Data

History

This package derived out of my personal need for a mapping system that was accurate across the globe in terms of longitude and latitude positioning. I found references to the CIA's Data Bank II which consists of 3 9-Track tapes of COBAL data that ran on old mainframes which had decent vector data of the earth, and that were also in the public domain. However, trying to find these on the Internet proved to be a challenge. I finally came across a set of data files derived from the CIA's Data Bank files which were compressed in an odd format and made to run on old old terminals using some Fortran program. I wrote some code to convert the mass of datafiles into one larger one that contained all the data as well as was fairly fast at accessing it. And that's the history of the origin on the vector data file.

Type of data

The following types of data are available for plotting. By editing the rmap.color file which is installed in the same directory as the earth.rez vector file (usually in /usr/local/share/rmap/ or /usr/share/rmap/), you can specify what you want to be displayed, and in what color. You can also copy this file into your home directory and rename it .rmaprc in case you can't edit the rmap.color file in it's installed location. You can also give rmap a command line option pointing to the colormap file you would like used.

Boundary

  • Demarcated or delimited boundary
  • Indefinite or in Dispute
  • Other line of separation of sovereignty on land
  • US State Lines

Costs, Islands and Lakes

  • Coast, islands and lakes that appear on all maps
  • Additional major islands and lakes
  • Intermediate islands and lakes
  • Minor islands and lakes
  • Intermittent major lakes
  • Intermittent minor lakes
  • Reefs
  • Salt pans -- major
  • Salt pans -- minor
  • Ice Shelves -- major
  • Ice Shelves -- minor
  • Glaciers

Rivers

  • Permanent major rivers
  • Additional major rivers
  • Additional rivers
  • Minor rivers
  • Double lined rivers
  • Intermittent rivers -- major
  • Intermittent rivers -- additional
  • Intermittent rivers -- minor
  • Major canals
  • Canals of lesser importance
  • Canals -- irrigation type

Screenshots

Downloading

Current Version is 1.2
Current Develpment Version is 1.5 (Download earth.rez seperatly here (46M Uncompressed) or the full rmap-1.2.tar.gz below, then install rmap-nodata.1.5.0.tar.gz to upgrade)
The ChangeLog is here.
  1. If you already have a previous version of rmap installed

    Download rmap-nodata-1.2.tar.gz (59k) or ramp-nodata-1.5.0.tar.gz (72k). Run configure, then edit config.h and change VECTORFILE to point to the location of previously installed earth.rez. It is probably in either /usr/local/share/rmap/earth.rez or /usr/share/rmap/earth.rez. In most cases, you won't have to edit it at all if you gave configure the same options. Then compile the code and install the new version (i.e. make install).

  2. If you don't have a previous version or if you need have a lot of bandwidth and don't want to bother editing any files

    Download ramp-1.2.tar.gz (~9 Megs), run configure, then run make install. This should configure the program for your system and install it. You must have libgd installed. If not, you can get it here.

Comments

PLEASE, please, please send comments and bug fixes and anything else to me at reza@reza.net.

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