[Mapserver-users] label placement, how shape's center is determined

[richard hornsby]

I'm looking through the maplabel.c file, trying to understand better how
the placement of labels within a shape is determined.

>From my tiny bit of C background, and from observing output, it seems like
mapserv is drawing a rectangle big enough to surround the shape, and then
finding the center of that rectangle.  Please correct me if this is not
how it works.

Using several different position switches (CL, CC, AUTO, etc) in the label
declaration of the map file doesn't seem to make any significant
difference in how labels are placed in oddly shaped polygons, such as
those for state senate districts.

Going with the above assumptions, my thought is that finding the largest
possible square (or rectangular) area *within* the shape would seem to be
a "better" (if slower, and far more difficult) method of determining where
to place the label...?  Conceptually this makes sense to me, but certainly
not in terms of how it would be done syntacially in C.

-rj
osuedc systems



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rj hornsby . systems engineer . www.osuedc.org
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