From doug Thu May 26 15:58:41 EDT 1988
Man pages are indeed the only electronically-distributable
documentation about "map".  Here's a cut at a LONG_DESC; it could be
shortened by dropping the third and/or fourth paragraphs.

        Doug

"Map" draws outline maps of the world or any part of it on more than
35 different projections.  It is capable of superimposing text (such as
city names), lines (such as airline routes), or user-defined symbols
at positions specified by latitude and longitude.  Its
device-independent output adapts readily to most plotting media.

In the simplest usage you need only specify projection:
        map mercator | plotfilter
generates an automatically scaled world map.  Using options for
windowing, scaling, orientation, overlaying, grid spacing, resolution,
additional inputs, etc., you may obtain maps centered on a favorite
city, strip maps along air routes, simulated space images, comparative
overlays of different regions, distributional maps, polyhedral globes,
and so on.

Besides the usual families of azimuthal, conic, and cylindrical
projections, there are projections popular in astronomy, one for X-ray
crystallography, two retroazimuthal projections for showing
great-circle directions to, rather than from, a given place, an
egocentric "New Yorker" projection, and four fascinating doubly
periodic maps.

The projection subroutines constitute a library that can be used
independently of "map".  An auxiliary route-finder program determines
orientation parameters for strip maps and generates great-circle
paths.

Included with "map" are digital data files for world shorelines, US
state boundaries, and US county boundaries, all derived from
government sources.

