The easiest way to make a new map is by using Google Earth. Draw a map in Google Earth, add places, and have it converted to RuG/L⁰⁴:

• Making maps for RuG/L⁰⁴ with Google Earth

The hard way is to construct your own maps using collected data. This gets discussed below.

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Before you can draw a map, you need to gather some data. First of all, you need a list of coordinates of the locations from which you collected the dialect data. Secondly, it is desirable, but not required, to know the borders of the area. Thirdly, you can use other things, such as internal borders, rivers, any lines that can help to orientate the viewer. Below are two examples. On the left a map that uses all three kinds of information, on the right a map that uses only coordinates of the dialect locations.

With a little luck, you can find coordinates for all locations on the web. Try one of these three:

• Global Gazetteer
• GNS: GEOnet Names Server
• Open Directory: Place Names

(If one of these links has changed, please report this to me.)

Obtaining the border of an area is more difficult. What you need is a polygon (or a group of polygons if it isn't a single connected area), a closed sequences of coordinate pairs that divide the border into short, straight line segments. You probably need to ask the assistance of someone with access to a Geographic Information System (GIS). There are a few things you should pay attention to:

The polygon (or polygons) should be saved with coordinates of longitude and latitude. It is common for a GIS to translate the coordinates to some coordinate system that is optimal for the area at hand, to display the area on the two-dimensional plane. However, RuG/L04 software has its own program to obtain this optimal coordinate mapping. Suppose you have a map and some locations, and at a later point you want to add more locations (for instance, because you got more dialect data). If all coordinates are in longitude and latitude, then all you have to do is find the coordinates of the new locations, and you don't need to use the GIS.

If the GIS allows, choose to have not too much detail. If a polygon of a 1000 point gives a map that looks satisfactory, then don't use a polygon of 8000 points, unless you want the map to look as good as possible. A polygon with too many points may result, under some circumstances, in images made with RuG/L04 that can not be displayed.

The required file format for the polygon, or set of polygons, is described in the manual of the mapsetup program (this program is discussed below).

If you have coordinates in longitude and latitude, then there are two ways to use them.

If the area is of moderate size, and not located too close to a polar area, you can use the coordinates as they are. All you have to do then is adjusting the relative scale between the two coordinate axes. This is done for the map of Pennsylvania in part 2 and part 3 of the tutorial.

For larger areas, you need to translate the coordinates from longitude and latitude (sphere coordinates) into a suitable geographic projection on the two-dimensional plane. You can use the ll2grid program to do this. Refer to the manual of this program to see how exactly this is done. There is one thing you should pay attention to. Take the map of Pennsylvania for example. The map shows some long, straight lines, borders that run along a particular longitude or latitude. When you project this map using ll2grid, those lines should be curved, but these long lines are indicated by end points only, and the program only translates the points. In this case, before you use ll2grid, you should divide those long lines into smaller segments, by inserting points along the border with small intervals.

Before you can finally draw a map, you need to supply some files.

You need a configuration file. This file lists all the other files needed to draw a map, and many options that determine the overall appearance of the map. You will need to create this file yourself, using an editor for plain text. See example and manual.

You need a file that has a numbered list of all locations (Label file), and a file with location coordinates (Coordinate file).

Finally, you need one to three files that contain fragments of PostScript code. You can create these files using the mapsetup program. The first file has code that takes care of translating the map coordinates into image coordinates. The second file determines the area that will be painted, the outer border. The third file has code that draws lines on the map, such as internal borders.

Below is an example of the use of mapsetup for the map of Pennsylvania. The polygon of the outer border is in the file PA.geo, and is accessed with the -c option. There is no file with extra internal borders, so we'll use the same file, just to draw the outer border, this time through the -m option. The -L option is used to tell the program that the coordinates are in longitude and latitude. The program will take care of a suitable adjustment between x-axis and y-axis.

    mapsetup -L -c PA.geo -m PA.geo

When you run the command above, you'll get:

    transform saved to: out.trn
    clipping saved to: out.clp
    map saved to: out.map
    
    Don't forget to put the following line in your configuration file:
    
    aspect: 1.32501

Except for the mentioned aspect ratio, you also need to enter the names of the files that were created into the configuration file.

If you used ll2grid to convert the coordinates, then you should not use the -L option, and set the value of aspect to 1 in the configuration file.

If you don't have borders available, you still need to run mapsetup to get at least one of the helper files. In that case, you only use the file with location coordinates as input. For example:

    mapsetup -L -l PA.coo

You will get this result:

    transform saved to: out.trn

    Don't forget to put the following line in your configuration file:

    aspect: 1.32261

Run a test to see if everything works fine. To do this, you don't need a measurement, no clustering or MDS. Use the mapmap program to get a plain map. For example, with map.cfg as the configuration file:

    mapmap -o test.ps map.cfg

If all goes well, all that is left to do is adjusting the BoundingBox.

To include a PostScript image into another document, the BoundingBox must be correctly defined. The BoundingBox is the smallest rectangle that fits the image. It is defined with four integer numbers: the x and y coordinate of the left bottom corner, and the x and y coordinate of the upper right corner (in this order). You need to list those four numbers after the boundingbox option in the configuration file. You can determine the correct values with the help of GV (on Unix) or GSview (on Windows).

(description for GV version 3.5.8)

Open your first map in GV.

On top, on the menu bar, the paper size is visible, probably BBox, A4 or Letter. If it is set to BBox, then change it to one of the other sizes, so you'll see all of the paper. Then move the mouse pointer over the edges of the map, and look at the top left for the corresponding coordinate values. Copy those coordinates into the configuration file, make a new map, and open it in GV. This time, choose the paper size BBox. If all is well, the map should fit exactly in the visible paper area.

(description for GSview version 4.3)

Open your first map in GSview.

Open the menu Options, the sub menu Units, and select pt. In the same sub menu unselect the option Fine Resolution.

Open the menu Options and select Show Bounding Box.

Open the menu Options and unselect EPS Clip.

There should now be a rectangle displayed on the image, that probably doesn't fit. Move the mouse pointer over the edges of the map, and look at the bottom for the corresponding coordinate values. Copy those coordinates into the configuration file, make a new map, and open it in GSview. If all is well, the rectangle should fit the map exactly.