List of GMT aliases

[leouieda]

Paul compiled this list of aliases and GMT vocabulary. We should include this somewhere in the docs and in the code somewhere to avoid repetition.

GMT Vocabulary for Python Aliases

The idea is to agree on a set of nouns that can serve as the Python aliases for GMT common options as well as commonly used options (such as pens, color).

Common options:

Option	Alias
B	frame
Bx,By,Bz	axes settings
J	projection, proj
P	portrait [PS only - goes away I think]
R	region
U	timestamp
V	verbosity
X	xshift
y	yshift
b	binary_in, binary_out, binary
d	nodata
e	search
f	coltypes,type?
g	gap
h	header
i	cols_in
n	bc
o	cols_out
p	view
r	reg, registration
s	skip
t	transparency
x	cores

Common themes that could use fixed aliases

Option	Alias
G	fill,color,clip
W	pen, thickness,color,style
C	cpt
F	font=, justification=, offset=,

[weiji14]

Crossreferencing GenericMappingTools/gmt#2079 and https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/standardized-human-readable-gmt-parameters-for-pygmt-matlab-julia-pyshtools-etc/77. I see that GenericMappingTools/gmt#230 was merged last year (Dec 2019), does that mean there is a standard source for long aliases now?

[seisman]

GenericMappingTools/gmt#230 was merged, but the long name feature is disabled by default. So the feature is still experimental and the long names can still change (for example, GMT uses verbosity, but PyGMT uses verbose for -V).

[maxrjones]

I think we can solve this by adding a link to https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/dev/devdocs/long_options.html#common-options in the contributing guide.

[seisman]

Why do we want to add the link in the contributing guide?

Should we just wrap up all aliases in the COMMON_OPTIONS dict?

pygmt/pygmt/helpers/decorators.py

Line 15 in 1fb9e2e

COMMON_OPTIONS = {

[maxrjones]

Why do we want to add the link in the contributing guide?

Should we just wrap up all aliases in the COMMON_OPTIONS dict?

pygmt/pygmt/helpers/decorators.py

Line 15 in 1fb9e2e

COMMON_OPTIONS = {

Is it decided that the current names of core GMT aliases will be used for all pygmt common aliases? #764 indicated that incols and outcols will be used; there's also distcalc versus spherical and possibly other common options that are wrapped in individual modules rather than decorators.py.

[maxrjones]

I'll start wrapping the other common options and we can discuss alternate names if needed.

[weiji14]

I'll start wrapping the other common options and we can discuss alternate names if needed.

Cool, have a look at other 'Add common alias for XXX) PRs like #994, #853, #662 as a reference. Maybe have a list of what other common option aliases needs to be done and we can split up the workload too.

[maxrjones]

I'll start wrapping the other common options and we can discuss alternate names if needed.

Cool, have a look at other 'Add common alias for XXX) PRs like #994, #853, #662 as a reference. Maybe have a list of what other common option aliases needs to be done and we can split up the workload too.

Yes, I agree. Do you think it's best to post a list in this issue or create separate issues for the remaining common option aliases? My preference would be to create separate issues, because I think tasks are less likely to get lost that way and it would make splitting up the workload easier (people can either self-assign, post that they will be working on it, or open a linked PR).

Edit: the downside would be if the number of open issues is bothersome to anyone - I suspect that it would be at least a handful

[weiji14]

Up to you whether you want to open a separate issue. If it's just a couple, I was thinking that a comment with a tickbox list will do. You could even edit Leo's original comment on the top to keep track of things without scrolling down.