Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!hellgate.utah.edu!cs.utah.edu!thomson
From: thomson@cs.utah.edu (Rich Thomson)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: problem in cartography
Keywords: world
Message-ID: <1990Oct8.182253.22688@hellgate.utah.edu>
Date: 9 Oct 90 00:22:53 GMT
References: <1990Oct5.110351.3996@cicb.fr>
Lines: 30

In article <1990Oct5.110351.3996@cicb.fr> brugalle@cicb.fr
    (Annie Brugalle) writes:
>On a map, I want to place towns with their names in boxes.
> Do you know about an algorithm which allows a good placement of the 
>boxes automatically ?

The article referenced by another poster can be found in the September
1989 issue of _IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications_.  Here is the
abstract:

	``A major problem in computer cartography is how to
	place names on maps so they are clearly associated
	with the features they annotate, while avoiding
	overlap with other names and features.  The logic
	programming language Prolo can be used to express
	the name-placement problem as a set of rules,
	referring primarily to the identification of free
	spcae, the generation of trial label positions, and
	the resolution of conflict between these positions.
	Cartographic features can be specified explicitly as
	facts, in the Prolog database, or implicitly, by
	presenting Prolog with the results of a prior
	analysis of potential label positions.  The Prolog
	inference mechanism can then determine whether there
	is a combination of label positions that satisfies
	the rules of placement.''

Hope this helps.			-- Rich
Rich Thomson	thomson@cs.utah.edu  {bellcore,hplabs,uunet}!utah-cs!thomson
``If everybody is thinking the same thing, is anybody thinking?'' --Bob Johnson