[Xastir-dev] README.MAPS "feature creep"

[Curt, WE7U]

On Sat, 22 May 2004, Reuven Z Gevaryahu wrote:

> I think README.MAPS is suffering something akin to feature creep: New
> things keep being tacked on, but the overall structure isn't being
> updated. I think that means time for another one of my infamous overhauls.
>
> The summary at the top duplicates stuff that should be/is in INSTALL.
> README.MAPS should (IMHO) be a file read after install is all done, and
> should explain where to get maps and how to install/organize them. We
> should clarify what is needed for each map when we are giving locations
> for that map type, but I think a lot of the stuff at the top is unnecessary.

Up to you.  The stuff at the top of README.MAPS is newer.  Combine
the two into something easily understandable if you wish.  Sometimes
it is good to duplicate info, or at least provide cross-links to
relevant info in other files.  Often people are in a hurry to get
something to go and don't get around to looking in every file for
the necessary info.

My personal feelings are that README.MAPS is a more likely place
that somebody would turn for trying to get a new map format working.
If it just referred them back to the INSTALL file, that's probably
ok.


> We have information about the old tiger-based maps, I think we should
> strip much of that in favor of the 2003 data in shapefile or GDAL/raw
> format. (With exception of the DosAPRS ones for non-shapefile systems)

Problems with this:

1) The 2003 maps require dbfawk functionality in order to get pretty
maps.

2) The 2003 maps don't have polygons, only lines/points.  You can't
do water.

3) dbfawk has some big memory leaks.  Hopefully those'll be fixed
soon.

4) GDAL support for Shapefiles in Xastir is primitive at this point.
It only does black lines, no labels.


> We also have http://www.findewe.com/nwaprs/XastirMaps, which has some
> sites not listed there.
>
> We have a bunch of information about reprojecting shapefiles, creating
> dbfawk files, and creating shapefiles. Should I create an
> README.SHAPEFILES or similar?

Fine by me.

Hey, you're the docs guy.  _You_ tell _us_ what we need.  ;-)

--
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