# The &kgeography; Handbook

Anne-Marie
Mahfouf
annma@kde.org
2005
Anne-Marie Mahfouf
&FDLNotice;
2005-08-02
0.4

&kgeography; is a geography learning tool for KDE. Right now it has six usage modes:

- Browse the maps clicking in a map division to see its name

- The game tells you a map division name and you have to click on it

- The game tells you a capital and you have to guess the division it belongs to

- The game tells you a division and you have to guess its capital

- The game shows you a map division flag and you have to guess its name

- The game tells you a map division name and you have to guess its flag

KDE
kdeedu
KGeography
geography
maps
countries

## Introduction

&kgeography; is a geography learning tool for KDE. It allows you to learn about the political divisions of some countries (divisions, capitals of those divisions and their associated flags if there are some).

Maps available in current release are: Africa, Asia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Italy by provinces, North and Central America, Norway, Poland, South America, Spain, USA and the world.

## Quick Start to &kgeography;

When you run &kgeography; for the first time, it first asks you to choose a map to start with. Here's a screenshot of &kgeography; at first start Here's a screenshot of &kgeography; at first start

Here we choose Canada Canada is choosen Canada is choosen

And &kgeography; main window appears with the map of Canada: &kgeography; main window &kgeography; main window

You can then choose what type of learning or testing you want to do by looking at the menu on the left: &kgeography; menu &kgeography; menu

Browse the map: a &LMB; click on an area of the map will display informations about that area: Browse the map Browse the map

Click division in the map: you are first asked how many questions you want How many questions How many questions

Then you are asked to click on a specific province: Click on a province Click on a province

When you finish all the questions, a result dialog is shown with your correct and uncorrect answers: Your results Your results

Guess a division from its capital: you are asked to find the name of a province among a choice of 4 given its capital: Guess a division from its capital Guess a division from its capital

And the results are displayed when the test is finished: Your results Your results

Guess the capital from a division: you have a capital and four province names and you must choose the correct one. As before, at the end a result dialog is shown.

Guess division from its flag: a flag is shown and you must find the province it belongs to. the flag question the flag question

Guess the flag of a division: a province name is given and you must find the correct flag among four. match the flag with the province match the flag with the province

## Using &kgeography;

&kgeography; displays informations about some countries and tests you about those informations.

Here's a screenshot of &kgeography; Screenshot

### More &kgeography; features

Another feature of &kgeography; is the possibility of zoom on a map. Zoom Zoom While in zoom mode, you can press &RMB; to go back to the original map size (the Original Size action has the same effect). Use the scroll bars to move around the zoomed map or use the Move action that will allow you to drag the map using &LMB;.

## How to make maps

A map in &kgeography; is made by two files, one is the image of the map and the other one is its description.

### Helper tool

You can find here a tool (made by Yann Verley) which helped him with the map of France. To find out its usage, simply execute it and read the help message. It basically creates the `.kgm` file from a plain text file and creates a file with the colors it has assigned to each division, so you can fill the map according to them.

### Description file

The description file is needed and its file extension is `.kgm`. It should begin with `map` and end with `map`.

Inside of those tags there should be:

- `mapFile` and `mapFile`: the name of the file (without any path) containing the map image, &eg; europe.png.

- `name` and `name`: the name of map, &eg; Europe.

- A `division` and `division` for each division in the map.

Each division has these tags:

- `name` and `name`: the name of the division, &eg; Albania.

- `capital` and `capital`: the name of the capital of the division, &eg; Tirana.

- `ignore` and `ignore`: can be set to `yes`, `allowClickMode` and `no`. If this tag is set to `yes` then the division will be ignored when asking for divisions in that map. It is then as if this division does not exist in &kgeography; quiz modes. If this tag is set to `allowClickMode` then &kgeography; will ask for the division in the Click Division in Map... mode but not in other quiz modes. Setting this tag to `no` means the division will appear in all modes (browse and quizzes). This tag is optional and when there is no `ignore` tag that means as it is set to `no`. For example Algeria has this tag set to `yes` in the Europe map which means that Algeria will not be part of any quiz in the Europe map.

- `flag` and `flag`: the file (without any path) containing the flag of the division, &eg; albania.png. This tag is optional. Not needed for the divisions whose `ignore` tag is set to `yes`.

- `color` and `color`: the color the division has in the map.

The color is defined using three tags:

- `red` and `red`: red component of the color. Valid values are between 0 and 255.

- `green` and `green`: green component of the color. Valid values are between 0 and 255.

- `blue` and `blue`: blue component of the color. Valid values are between 0 and 255.

It is convenient to create 2 or 3 false divisions like Water, Frontier and Coast and set them with the `ignore` tag set to `yes`.

All names (capitals and divisions) must be in English.

### Map file

The map file is quite simple but laborious to create. It has to be in PNG format. You can find some maps to transform at Cia Reference Maps. If no map fits your needs you can download the world pdf, take a screenshot of it and work from it. Each division in the map should have one and only one color. To achieve this you can use image processing programs like The Gimp and Kolourpaint.

### Flags

If you have used the `flag` tag you should provide the flag files. They have to be in PNG format and better if they are 300x200 pixels and you provide a SVG file for it. To obtain SVG flags of almost all countries in the world and some other divisions, you can consult the Sodipodi flags collection.

### How to test

Before sending your map to Albert tsdgeos@terra.es, you should test it to see it has no errors. To achieve that, you have to do the following:

- Put the map description and map image file in `$`KDEDIR`/share/apps/kgeography/`

- Put the flag PNG files (if any) in `$`KDEDIR`/share/apps/kgeography/flags/`

Once that has been done you should be able of opening your map from inside &kgeography;.

If you don't know which is your `$`KDEDIR``, type ``kde-config` `--prefix`` in a shell.

### Non political maps

Is it possible to do non-political maps? Yes, it is! Example of how to create a non political map Example of how to create a non political map

Of course, the division concept can be extended to a river or a mountain. During the creation of the map, you should keep in mind that most times the river or mountain will be too small that you should provide an additional clicking area. In this example the river would have the maroon area and color <20,76,34> as its identifier.

## Command Reference

### The main &kgeography; window

#### The File Menu

&Ctrl;O File Open Map...

  Open the choose map dialog

&Ctrl;Q File Quit

  Quits &kgeography;

#### The View Menu

View Zoom

  Goes in zoom mode

View Original Size

  Sets the map back to its original size

View Move

  Moves the current map

#### The Settings Menu

Settings Show/Hide Toolbar

  Show/Hide the &kgeography; toolbar.

Settings Configure Shortcuts...

  Configure key shortcuts for &kgeography;.

Settings Configure Toolbars...

  Configure the &kgeography; toolbar.

#### The Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Credits and License

&kgeography;

Program copyright 2004-2005 Albert Astals Cid tsdgeos@terra.es

Documentation Copyright © 2005 Anne-Marie Mahfouf annma@kde.org

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &kgeography;

&install.intro.documentation;

### Compilation and Installation

&install.compile.documentation;

&documentation.index;