[Xastir] Feature idea for Xastir

[Tom Russo]

On Fri, Oct 05, 2007 at 10:53:12PM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <gerry.creager at tamu.edu> flavor, containing:
>  Google and Mapquest get their basemaps, if memory serves, from Navtech.  No 
>  one seriously uses Tiger anymore for "real" applications.  After USGS 
>  migrated to SDTS format Tiger was the only decent alternative, for some low 
>  value of decent.  It was based on the original USGS maps, regardless of what 
>  Census told you.  However, Census munges them for their purposes (census 
>  work, interestingly enough) and effectively renders them less than adequate 
>  for "real" mapping.
> 
>  In other words, "These maps should come with a consumer product safety 
>  warning."

And this is the last year that TIGER/Line data will be released in that format.
According to their web site, they will start releasing the Census maps in
shapefile format --- but from the looks of it, these shapefiles will NOT be
very useful for the purpose of drawing road maps.  The dbf fields they plan
to include are very clearly designed solely for census purposes, and they
will be missing a lot of the data that we rely on for rendering.

>  Lee Bengston wrote:
> > On 10/5/07, Jason Winningham <jdw at eng.uah.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Oct 5, 2007, at 8:48 AM, I wrote:
> >>
> >>>> http://roadnav.sourceforge.net/
> >>> Ah, this is more like it.  At a glance: maps - so what? looks a lot
> >>> like xastir (maybe they do a bit better job rendering labels).
> >>> Keep looking: vector maps, rendered by the app, included routing,
> >>> vector maps based on TIGER data.
> >>
> >> Looks good, but I couldn't get enough data downloaded/converted to
> >> try anything interested - got tired of it continuously bombing on the
> >> mac.  Oh well, another one bites the dust.
> > I wasn't able to get the roadnav deb package to install in andLinux, but I
> > was able to compile it from source after installing wxwidgets from the
> > ubuntu respository.  Not a bad program - with the Tiger maps, they are
> > labeling the highways better, and I like they way they display the minor
> > streets at high zoom levels.
> > However, it's the same old TigerMap problem at intermediate zoom levels -
> > either no street labels at all or labels in a very tiny hard to read font
> > depending on the exact zoom.  The same view in Google, Mapquest, etc. shows
> > the street names clearly.  I don't care about looking really slick like
> > Google does, but street labels that I can read are important.
> > But the above is in the context of XASTIR and seeing APRS stations in
> > certain views.  Using Roadnav on a trip should be fine - can zoom in or out
> > as needed - only need to track one vehicle.  Overall I would say it's a
> > pretty nice package.
> > Lee-K5DAT
> > Murphy, TX
> > _______________________________________________
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> > Xastir at xastir.org
> > http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
> 
>  -- 
>  Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
>  Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University	
>  Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020 FAX: 979.862.3983
>  Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843
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-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236 AHTB#1 http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
"And, isn't sanity really just a one-trick pony anyway? I mean all you get is
 one trick, rational thinking, but when you're good and crazy, oooh, oooh,
 oooh, the sky is the limit!"  --- The Tick