[Freeciv-Dev] new game manual - and advice on illustrations

[Brandon Craig Rhodes <brandon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

After a few weeks of preparation, which included changes based on good
advice that some of you offered, the new Game Manual is in place and
available from the Manuals page http://freeciv.org/manual which has
also been updated.

The illustrations are currently produced by Python scripts which
robustly parse *.tileset and *.spec files, and can then draw images
based on a list of coordinates and tile names.  For instance,

        [(0,0, 't.hills_n1s1e0w1'),
         (1,0, 't.plains_n1s1e0w0'),
         (2,0, 't.grassland_n1s1e1w0'),
         (1,0, 'tx.village')]

when passed to the scripts yields the image

        http://www.freeciv.org/manual/trident/tx.village.gif

But this shortcut seems to have failed me now that I want to generate
illustrations based on the default `hires' tileset, because the logic
for deploying terrain tiles across its surface seems intricate enough
that I do not want to bother reproducing it.

With what tools could specifications like the above be most easily
converted into small `hires' landscapes in .gif images?

-- 
Brandon Craig Rhodes   brandon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx   http://rhodesmill.org/brandon