[GRASS5] Ps.map wish/question

[Glynn Clements]

Michael Barton wrote:

> I haven¹t used ps.map. It seems like a very useful module, but one that is
> fairly complex to use. While looking though the docs, however, it became
> apparent that it performs the same kind of display functions (to
> paper/postscript file) as many of the d.* modules do (to the display
> monitor)--and does a number of other special functions like setting paper
> size and margins of course. However, it uses a slightly different syntax to
> perform equivalent functions. E.g., rast [mapname] for ps.map vs. d.rast
> [mapname] for screen display.
> 
> This led me wonder if it would be difficult to have ps.map accept as an
> alternative syntax, the d.* commands for which it has equivalent functions.
> D.vect (vareas, vlines, vpoints), d.rast (rast), d.barscale (scalebar),
> d.grid (grid or geogrid) seem easily apparent. There might be reasonably
> straightforward translation for additional d.* commands like d.frame and
> d.graph also.
> 
> If this could be done, then either a set of normal GRASS commands‹or even
> nicer, the file produced by d.save‹could be piped to ps.map to make nice
> postscript output.
> 
> How feasible would this be?

It would be simple enough to define aliases for existing ps.map
commands. However, users would probably be confused by the significant
differences between the ps.map commands and their d.* counterparts.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn at gclements.plus.com>