[R-pkg-devel] new maintainer sought for maps packages

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> Alex Deckmyn <alex.deckmyn at meteo.be>
>>>>>     on Fri, 31 Jul 2015 19:48:49 +0200 writes:

    > First of all, I would like to thank Ray for his many years of taking care of maps, mapdata and mapproj, and for his confidence in my taking over. I hope to keep the packages running smoothly. 

Indeed, thanks to Ray and you (and I am also happy to have heard
from Ray about many positive responses !)

    > I think R-sig-Geo is the best place to discuss future developments and will be posting there soon.

I agree ... but the following is not about 'maps' in particular,
but package maintenance / compatibility ....

    >  As Ray mentioned, I (with his help & feedback) have been preparing an updated world map. I am going to be very cautious, but the many changes in country names (post-1990 Europe!) mean that any package or code that uses maps by calling map('world',region=...) to create a map using country names, could be affected. Maintainers of packages calling "maps" may want to contact me to make sure I don't break anything. In any case, I am currently testing a beta version that includes the old data set as a fall back. 

I know these data sets are not very small, but I would still
strongly recommend that you 
keep the old map, say as   "world198x"  (and change the "x" to a
digit if you know which one, or the "8x" to "7y" ... etc).
Storage and bandwidth have become considerably cheaper and so
the package could provide (almost) back compatibility ... and
also something interesting in itself (comparison of two very
similar maps with R; teaching, history, ...).

Best regards,
Martin

    > Alex 

    > --- 
    > Dr. Alex Deckmyn e-mail: alex.deckmyn at meteo.be 
    > Royal Meteorological Institute http://www.meteo.be 
    > Ringlaan 3, 1180 Ukkel, Belgium tel. (32)(2)3730646 



    > I have been somewhat surprised by the number of positive responses to my 
    > message. I have found a candidate for the position of maintainer of the 
    > maps, mapdata and mapproj packages. I have confidence that Alex Deckmyn 
    > <alex.deckmyn at meteo.be> will do at least as good a job as I have done in 
    > this regard. 




    > The current (recent) releases of the packages still have my name as 
    > maintainer, but the address specified points to my (now) old work 
    > address which will autorespond to say I have now retired. However in 
    > practise, I will still be able to read and respond to such emails for 
    > the foreseeable future. 

    > Among other improvements, Alex is working on setting up a more accurate 
    > "world" database for maps and will submit this once it has been fully 
    > tested. 

    > Thanks everyone for your support. 
    > Ray Brownrigg 

    > [[alternative HTML version deleted]]

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