[GRASSLIST:53] Displaying attributes alongside vector data

[Mauro Lacy]

Hello,
In some sense, related to the "axis of river" post: What I want to do is 
to display river names alogside the river(not at the left, center o 
right of the centroid). Is there a way to do this actually, or I'll have 
to hack d.vect to be able to do it with grass?
What about displaying names(or generically, attributes) with a small 
(black or white) border around the (freetype) fonts? So they can be 
easily distinguished from the background map.
What about displaying (with the "right" colors) islands in lakes? or do 
I need a Coverage for this, besides inwatera?

Best regards,

Mauro