Worst GMT command line ever?

Lounge
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For an upcoming talk that I may (or may not if I get lucky) be giving, I would like to include a short tongue-in-cheek mention of GMT, specifically how convoluted/obscure the command line syntax can get. To that end, I thought I’d ask the community: what is the most complicated - as in, longest and hardest to tell at a glance what it is doing - GMT command line formulation you have come across? Bonus points if you can give an equivalent command in PyGMT using named parameters that is easier to decipher :slight_smile:

…Of course, the point of the segment is how powerful GMT is, but a little self-deprecating humor is often fun…

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What about most (any) formula in math ?

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Sure. Looking at the documentation, I do like the following example:

gmt math -T0/360/1 2 PI MUL 360 DIV T MUL STO@kT COS @kT 2 MUL COS ADD @kT 3 MUL COS ADD = harmonics.txt

And also from the documentation, this basemap example:

gmt basemap -R1969-7-21T/1969-7-23T/0/1 -JX12c/0.5c -Bpxa6Hf1h -Bsxa1K -BS

…but I’m sure that could be beat by someone with a high degree of customization to their basemap :slight_smile:

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The astro map from showcase is quite something :slight_smile:

That’s also what makes GMT so great: the high degree of customization!

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