GMT Version 3.3.1 for OS/2 Warp
Table of Contents
Introduction
I have ported the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) package from Unix
to OS/2. GMT is a freely-available package, distributed under the GNU Public
License, that produces exceptionally high-quality graphical output; it
has been developed by Paul Wessel, currently at the University of Hawaii,
and Walter Smith, presently at NOAA. GMT is especially designed for spatial
data, and includes ways of displaying information using any one of many
map projections. All GMT graphical output is postscript, and can be printed
on any postscript printer, or printed with a utility such as Ghostscript.
For more details on GMT, refer to the GMT
Web Site, which also provides many examples of GMT graphical output.
This version of GMT for OS/2 has only been tested Warp 4. No testing
has been performed on OS/2 version 2.x of Warp 3, although I expect that
the GMT routines, which make no use of PM or the WPS, should work fine
on either of these systems.
GMT can be compiled for either a US installation or an SI (Europe or
Asia) installation. Both an SI and a US distribution of executables is
provided.
Note: The current version of GMT is 3.3.1.
Return to Table of Contents
Requirements
System
The present OS/2 version of GMT is REQUIRED to be installed upon
a disk formated for HPFS. It might work with file systems such as the native
file system used by Linux (which can be read by OS/2 with the appropriate
IFS driver), but has not been tested using such a file system. I have no
plans to produce a version that will execute on a FAT file system unless
several requests for such are received.
Having said that, note that HPFS is really required in order to permit
access to files containing world coastline data, political boundaries,
and related infomation, as well as to files containing Postscript pattern
information. There are many routines in GMT that do not need or use this
information; such routines should work fine on a FAT file system.
Libraries
Run-time. In addition to the GMT codes, one must also have installed
the run-time support for EMX. This plus the remainder of the EMX development
system is freely available from Hobbes
or LEO.
The OS/2 version of GMT has been compiled with EMX version 0.9d (fix level
1), and thus the run-time library corresponding to that version should
be used.
Development. In addition to the EMX development system, GMT requires
the netCDF libraries, developed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric
Research. These are freely available from its ftp
site, but an OS/2 version is provided with this GMT distribution.
Note that netCDF support is not required to be installed if one
only plans to use the GMT executables. Installation of netCDF is necessary,
though, for any recompilation of the GMT routines.
In addition, GMT requires a math library; I have used Sun Microsystem's
Freely Distributable Math Library (fdlibm), available from netlib,
for the required routines. This math library and its source are included
with this package.
Return to Table of Contents
Obtaining the code and related data
Due to the size of the archives, I am distributing GMT for OS/2 in four
ZIP archives. Two of these archives are executables only: GMT331-OS2-sibin.zip,
the European version, and GMT331-OS2-usbin.zip, the U.S. version.
The other two archives, GMT331-OS2-src.zip and GMT331-OS2-doc.zip
contain the source code (including man pages) and documentation, respectively.
The documentation archive contains extensive documentation, including a
tutorial. The documentation is provided in HTML as well as postscript.
The required archives can be found at the ftp site
ftp.geophysics.lanl.gov in the directory pub/EES3/pub/gmt/GMT3.3.1.
Please insure that any file transfers are done in BINARY (or Image) mode.
Links are provided here for convenience:
I also plan to upload the archives to Hobbes
and LEO, so if the above ftp site is unavailable,
one should check those sites.
GMT contains five different resolutions of world political and
coastline data. The resolutions provided are crude, low, intermediate,
high, and full (in increasing order of spatial resolution). Only the crude-,
low-, and intermediate-resolution data are provided in the basic distribution.
All others can be obtained using links from the main GMT
web site to one of its mirror sites throughout the world.
Return to Table of Contents
Environment Variables
The environment variable GMTHOME must to be set for GMT to work
properly. If this respect, the OS/2 distribution is the same as the
Unix distribution. GMT will look for required data files in the subdirectory
lib beneath the main GMT directory specified by GMTHOME.
I suggest setting GMTHOME in CONFIG.SYS. In addition, the variable
HOME should be set to a directory of the user's choice (it could
be the same as GMTHOME); GMT stores default parameters in
that directory. Remember to use forward slashes rather than backward slashes
to indicate the directories (for example, use SET GMTHOME=d:/GMT rather
than SET GMTHOME=d:\GMT).
Return to Table of Contents
IInstallation
To install, unzip the archives and set the environment variables as discussed
above. Install the executables in the directory /GMT/GMT3.3.1/os2bin or
in any other location in your PATH. If you are using man, set your MANPATH
to either /GMT/GMT3.3.1/src/SI/man or /GMT/GMT3.3.1/src/US/man, whichever
is appropropriate.
Return to Table of Contents
Documentation
Documentation for the routines that comprise GMT is found starting in the
/GMT/GMT3.3.1/src subdirectory. Below that directory there are subdirectories
SI and US, as the man pages are slightly different for the European (SI)
and US versions of GMT. For each routine, there is a Unix man page describing
how to use the routine. In addition, there is both html and postscript
documentation in GMT331-OS2-doc.zip. The html documentation can
be read from starting from /GMT/GMT3.3.1/www/gmt/gmt_services.html.
Both a Technical Reference, a Tutorial, and easy access to the individual
man pages can be obtained starting from this base.
In addition, one can access all the GMT html documentation from the
GMT web site.
Return to Table of Contents
Other Utilities
GMT produces outstanding graphical output. All its output is in the form
of either Postscript or Encapsulated Postscript files. Some readily-available
utilities are extremely useful for viewing or printing such files. Aladdin
Ghostscript
provides one the ability to print Postscript files to non-Postscript printers;
I recommend it (there is also a Gnu version of ghostscript, which I simply
have not used). An outstanding OS/2 utility named GSView,
written by Russell Lang,
uses Aladdin Ghostscript and provides an OS/2 user the ability to preview
Postscript and Encapsulated Postscript files.
Return to Table of Contents
Help and Bug Reports
This version of GMT is not directly supported by Paul Wessel and
Walter Smith, who are the authors of the Unix verison. If you believe you've
found a bug, it may be a bug that applies to the Unix version as well as
to the OS/2 versions. Be aware that there are two electronic mailing lists
available to users. The first, gmtgroup@soest.hawaii.edu, is used
primarily to notify users of bug fixes and new versions. The second, gmthelp@soest.hawaii.edu,
serves as a users forum for idea exchange and questions about GMT usage.
To subscribe to either of these lists, send an e-mail message to listserver@soest.hawaii.edu
containing one or both of the commands
subscribe gmtgroup <your full name, not your e-mail address>
subscribe gmthelp <your full name, not your e-mail address>
Do not include the angle brackets in the message. Also, if your
e-mail client appends a signature file to your outgoing messages, inhibit
the sending of the file (or send a blank file).
For questions of bug reports that you believe are specific to the OS/2
version, please send bug reports [e-mail only!] to Allen
Cogbill, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Return to Table of Contents