[Xastir] pos file

[Tom Russo]

On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 09:15:21AM -0500, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <wa0tjt at gmail.com> flavor, containing:
> I would sure like this. I work several of these type events and the  
> guy who coordinates a good share of them is a die hard UiView nut. I  
> say nut because I still believe using software supported by a dead guy  
> isn't all that smart... LOL

The format of a GNIS file (new format) is fairly straightforward.  You need
either the very latest snapshot that Curt put together yesterday, or a 
CVS version more recent than April 13th or thereabouts.

>From the map_gnis.c file, with Jerry's newest change.
// 2008 Format follows
//FEATURE_ID|FEATURE_NAME|FEATURE_CLASS|STATE_ALPHA|STATE_NUMERIC|COUNTY_NAME|COUNTY_NUMERIC|PRIMARY_LAT_DMS|PRIM_LONG_DMS|PRIM_LAT_DEC|PRIM_LONG_DEC|SOURCE_LAT_DMS|SOURCE_LONG_DMS|SOURCE_LAT_DEC|SOURCE_LONG_DEC|ELEVATION|MAP_NAME|DATE_CREATED|DATE_EDITED
//205110|Appalachian National Scenic Trail|Trail|PA|42|Perry|099|401920N|0770439W|40.3221113|-77.0775473|||||201|Wertzville|09/12/1979|05/19/2008

Xastir ignores the FEATURE_ID field, so you could put any random number 
there.  

FEATURE_NAME is maximum of 100 characters. 

FEATURE_CLASS is what type of feature it is, and determines how it's displayed
(i.e. what symbol and what zoom level to stop showing it). 

STATE_NUMERIC is the FIPS code for your state, and COUNTY_NUMERIC is the FIPS
code for your county.

PRIMARY_LAT_DMS and PRIMARY_LON_DMS are the latitude and longitude of the point
in DDMMSS(N/S) and DDDMMSS(E/W) format.  They are the only values Xastir uses,
we ignore the next two, the decimal representations.

I don't even think we do anything with the FIPS codes, state, and county name,
except to print them when debug_level's bit 5 is set, so you can leave garbage 
in those.

You can leave everything else blank (i.e. nothing between the "|" symbols 
where those would be) as they are ignored --- the only thing Xastir looks for 
is the "|" symbol to know where the next field begins.

Since POS format has lat/lon in DDMM.mm format, you'd need to convert the
coordinates in your script to DDMMSS, but that's easy (multiply .mm*60 and 
take integer part to get SS).

If you want to get fancy, you can try to make a script that decodes the
APRS symbol in the POS line and map it to a feature class.  Or be lazy and
just set every FEATURE_CLASS to "Other" and the default symbol
will be used, and the feature will only be visible below zoom level 50.

For your original examples of 
> > ;A1*311530z3851.26N/09453.59Wh151st & New Century Parkway
> > ;A2*311530z3851.28N/09454.55Wa151st & Moonlight Rd

you should be able to make a gnis version:

1|A1 151st & New Century Parkway|Other|XX|YY|County|ZZZ|385116N|0945335W|||||||||Ignoredfield
2|A2 151st & Moonlight Rd|Other|XX|YY|County|ZZZ|385116N|0945333W|||||||||Ignoredfield

and so forth.  Name the file "race.gnis" and put it in a maps directory, index
new maps, and select it in the map chooser.  You should see your points.

Scripting this is an exercise for the reader, all about just pulling the right
pieces out of the pos file and putting them back in the right order with the
correct number of pipe symbols to delimit things..

If your Xastir is not CVS from after April 13th or is the old snapshot from
before yesterday, you have to use the old GNIS format, which has more fields.
See the map_gnis file for details if you don't feel like updating.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236        http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
  In some cultures what I do would be considered normal. 
                                  -- Ineffective daily affirmation