1.1.2 Overview of GMT 4.1.2 [May-15, 2006]

On the surface, changes in GMT 4.1.2 are relatively minor. Most of the work has involved realignment of code and parsing of arguments to simplify the upcoming port to GMT 5; a brief listing of more visible changes include

1. Coastline files have been updated to use GSHHS version 1.4 which fixes minor inconsistencies in the coastline database.
2. All coastline files are now stored in a new subdirectory coast under the share directory, and the tar archives for coastlines now have their own version numbers as they do not change as frequently as the source code. Current coastline version number is 4.1.
3. The archives have been reorganized so that GMT_share.* contains all files needed at runtime whereas the standard coastline files are in the new GMT_coast.* archive. The GMT_progs.* archive has been renamed GMT_src.*.
4. CPT files can now have z-values that are date-time strings.
5. Optionally append z to the -Jp projection to annotate depths (i.e., ``north-y'') rather than radius.
6. Two new tools added to the misc supplement for digitizing lines (gmtdigitize.c) and to stitch digitized lines into continuous lines or polygons (gmtstitch.c).
7. Extended -M option to take optional modifiers i or o for input or output.
8. Added support for custom grd format AGC from Atlantic Geoscience Center, assigned the code af [21].

A few programs or options have received minor updates and new features, such as

blockmean.c

: Added -E for reporting standard deviation, min, and max values per block.

blockmedian.c

: Added -E for reporting L1 scale, min, and max values per block. Also added -T to specify a particular quartile [Default q = 0.5 = median].

blockmode.c

: Added -E for reporting LMS scale, min, and max values per block.

configure

: Added explicit options to bypass the installation of supplements that require Matlab (-disable-mex) and X11 (-disable-xgrid).

gmtconvert.c

: Added -D option to write segments to individual output files.

gmtdefaults.c

: Support for new default PS_VERBOSE which controls the writing of comments to PostScript files. COLOR_MODEL can now accept a prefix ``+'' which forces color interpolation in the selected system (RGB or HSV only). Default remains RGB. PS_COLOR has been extended to accept HSV as well (only applies to polygon, symbol, pen, and text colors, not images.). New parameter POLAR_CAP which controls the number of gridlines that converge on the poles for azimuthal and some other projections. Added new default HISTORY [TRUE] which controls whether or not we maintain a common command option history via .gmtcommands4 files.

gmtmath.c

: Added option -M to indicate the program can now handle multisegment files. Added CPOISS for cumulative Poisson distribution.

grdmath.c

: Added CPOISS for cumulative Poisson distribution.

minmax.c

: -D made obsolete by improved range checking for longitudes (but available for backwards compatibility).

psscale.c

: Enhanced -I option for asymmetrical intensity ranges from low to high.

psxy.c

: Added -SW for wedges defined by azimuths rather than directions. Polygons of large longitudinal extent now clip correctly.

splitxyz.c

: New option -Q to specify the output columns and their order.

Below is a list of previous problems that we have identified and corrected in the current release:

gmt_plot.c

: The 3-D perspective plotting of text was not scaled correctly.

gmt_support.c

: Parsing of -L option used in psbasemap and pscoast failed to get correct unit when ddd:mm:ss syntax was used for the position. Corner boundary conditions for grids (needed by grdtrack, grdsample, grdview, and grdgradient) had the wrong sign.

gmt2rgb.c

: Did not check name template properly, and did not initialize region.

gmtselect.c

: Option -F insisted on using spherical testing for Cartesian x,y data.

grd2xyz.c

: The -E option had the y-direction reversed.

grdfilter.c

: Needed the -f option to process -Rddd:mm syntax.

grdimage.c

: Would hang in stdin if -C not given when one grid is plotted.

grdmask.c

: Did not explicitly close polygons before using them. Test for polar caps applied to the opposite pole.

grdmath.c

: Command INSIDE for Cartesian data had bug (passed y where x was expected).

grdsample.c

: Failed when -I was specified.

grdview.c

: Bug in plotting north facade (-N). Also tried to free unallocated memory if -G was used.

project.c

: Cartesian projections gave incorrect results for p,w,r,s. Removed 0-360 restriction on azimuth. Option -G was susceptible to round-off and thus sometimes reissued the final point.

psxy.c

: -SV and -SE for -JX did not convert azimuths to directions. The -Sq option would get confused when distances between successive labels were smaller than the line's point spacing.

mgd77/mgd77manage.c

: Did not properly close the file after ingesting E77 information.

pslib.c

: ps_load_raster did not use open mode rb and hence failed under Windows.

xyz2grd.c

: The -E option had the y-direction reversed.

x2sys/x2sys_get.c

: -N did not work properly (now fixed and tested).