[R] maps library for R?

[Ray Brownrigg]

> Does it already exist a library in R to draw maps (something like a Generic 
> Mapping Toolbox, http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/ port).
> 
> I've seen in an old R-help that Ross Ihaka once tried to port the S-plus map 
> library (http://maths.newcastle.edu.au/~rking/R/help/99b/0832.html ).
> Anybody know if this package is available somewhere or if there is somebody 
> developing a Mapping package for R. I'll might then try to help.

There are two, but AFAIK neither of them will work on Windows.  My port
of the basic S maps package (no projections) has recently been modified
to provide a small (700KB) 'base' package with limited maps data (just
usa, state, counties, nz and world.thin), plus an add-on package called
mapdata (24MB) with the high-resolution maps. [This split has not yet
been fully tested, and requires maps to be *installed* before mapdata,
and mapdata must be installed in the same library directory as maps.]

These are available from
ftp://ftp.mcs.vuw.ac.nz/pub/statistics/map/map*_1.1-0*

The other solution in development is called Rmap from Barry Rowlingson
(http://www.maths.lancs.ac.uk/Software/Rmap/), but as I understand it,
this requires quite a lot of "third-party" stuff to be installed first.

Ray Brownrigg