Hoping to interest a (few) coder(s).....
 

Last weekend , I did an astonishing (to me at least) discovery : There is no cartography-software available , that's running natively on Linux.
Not even remotely close.

The only prog , I managed to find , that even had a hint of (possible) compatabillity was a Windows-app , which required the installation of Kylix + some other apps in order to be able to compile the source.(If at all)

A pretty glaring hole in the software-range , if you ask me.

Now , what's my interest with mapping-software , you might ask?
Simple : One of my favorite passtimes is playing RPGs ; Not the lame "hack&slash , break-barrels-for-treasure-till-you-see-blue-in-the-face" computer-games , but honest-to-goodness Table-top pen&paper RPGs.

Maps are an indispensible aid in such a game.

In Windows , there are plenty of Mapping-apps , with "CampaignCartographer2" being the most prominent one.
I'd love to a see similar app for Linux , open source(preferrable) or not.(I'm not a freeloader)
And the Gimp , albeit a wonderfull app for drawing , doesn't cut it either : I spent three days , creating a very basic set of brushes and patterns (ripped from online images of CC2 maps) but it still is very tedious and time-consuming work.

Yes : I can already hear someone calling ; "Why don't you make it yourself?"
Simple : I'm just getting my toes wet with scripting and hence still a very long shot from real programming. I'm not up to the task myself.

A short (and still far from complete) list of required features :
-Abillity to select region in the map and give them a height-value(preferrably metres) from a table , that automagically assigns a colour to that region from a table.
-A full set of suitable cartographic icons. Both "serious"(as in : like on RealWorld roadmaps) and fantasy. (I could do that , if needed)
-Abillity to random-pattern-fill a selected area with "single-item" brushes/icons ; If I use a self-created patter in the gimp , it still looks like sharply cut&paste-job(If , for example , an area is filled with a trees-patter , the trees at the rim are cut off sharply , making it look like a piece of printed paper , stuck on the map) and I have to adjust it manually.
-A good set of different line-types , so different types of roads could be drawn easily. Also for marking borders. (I'm still trying to figure out , how to do that in the Gimp...)
-An indoor mapping feature(Creating maps of buildings , using tiles) included would be wondefull.(Again : if needed , I can volunteer for the artwork/tiles)
-Abillity to work with and safe as .gif files.(I see no reason to implement some non-open format here )
-Abillity to scale the brushes/icons , so maps on different scales are feasible.

As mentioned before : I can contribute artwork and testing. It's the programming part I'm not up to.

Any takers?

Note : Reason to post this in "General" : Not a really technical Programming or Software question (as in : "how do I do this or that"...), I gathered.