Much like the Computer Atlas of Kenya, this atlas of “Bangla Desh” consists of choropleth maps produced by line printer. The “scan-line procedure,” as it was called in the 1970s, printed maps one line at a time (similar to a typewriter):
The scan-line procedure makes possible the use of small computers…storage requirements are reduced by having only one print line of the map in memory at anytime. When the line is printed, that portion of core storage is then available for the next print line of the map. Therefore the size of the map is not restricted by the memory requirements of the program and running time on the computer is the only consideration.
In making the atlas, the authors had a dual goal: to “present some of the spatial patterns…of this new nation,” as well as “examine the potential of computer maps” in displaying such data. Thus, the applications of computer mapping in newly independent nations like Kenya and Bangladesh was not just a coincidence; as D.R.F. Taylor wrote in his Computer Atlas of Kenya, computer mapping was exciting in these places precisely because it had “not been applied in developing nations.”
When this atlas was first published in March of 1972, it primarily depicted data from 1951 and 1961 censuses of East Pakistan. However, on March 25, West Pakistan (now Pakistan) launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Bangladeshi Bengalis. A revised edition of the atlas—printed that July using SYMAP—included data from humanitarian nutritional surveys conducted that June, depicting variables such as damage to housing status. Because computer maps could be made and printed relatively quickly, they were useful for communicating information in rapidly changing situations like this.