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

[Jonathan Callahan]

Alex,

Thank you for addressing the #1 issue with the 'maps' package. I have
several clients and colleagues that I have pushed to use R for mapping but
it's always embarrassing to say they have to either 1: accept Soviet Union
era borders or 2: embrace the complexity of the 'sp' package.

Updating the world borders and (Oh please!) allowing countries to be
identified by ISO-3166-1-alpha2 country codes would hugely improve the
utility of the 'maps' package.

Our efforts with the MazamaSpatialUtils
<https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/MazamaSpatialUtils> package
originated with the outdated world map in the 'maps' package.

Best Regards,

Jon

On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 10:48 AM, Alex Deckmyn <alex.deckmyn at meteo.be>
wrote:

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



-- 
Jonathan Callahan, PhD
Mazama Science
206-708-5028
mazamascience.com

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