<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 3/13/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">M.Blackmore</b> <<a href="mailto:mblackmore@oxlug.org">mblackmore@oxlug.org</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 10:14 -0500, Frank Warmerdam wrote:<br>> M.Blackmore wrote:<br>> > So ... for a COMPLETE gis newbie ... where do I start?<br><br><top post begging of forgiveness> Thanks for the suggestions thus far,
<br>folks! The level of my ignorance is profound as I didn't understand most<br>of what Frank was saying, the terminology being utterly unfamiliar<br>(polygons? Wossat? A dead parrot?) but I could take some guesses...<br>
<br>So I'll try and rustle out a few books and such like. I can also play<br>with mapinfo of which they have data from people like Thames Water and<br>the County Council made available. Trouble is - and this is the trouble
<br>with expensive proprietary software - the only licenced copy they've got<br>is on the director's PC so I have to fit in when he's not using the<br>machine, i.e. for an hour or so Friday morning when my 3yr old is in<br>
preschool.<br><br>Such restrictions (machine licences, not 3 year olds...) are amongst the<br>reason why, if the functionality can be created using open source, there<br>would be a lot of support for a move into OS, thus allowing widespread
<br>access.</blockquote><div><br>
To get you started is this the sort of map that you could use?<br>
<br>
<a href="http://vision.edina.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wms-vision?version=1.1.0&request=getMap&layers=newpop%2Csmall_1920%2Cmed_1904&styles=&SRS=EPSG:27700&Format=image/png&width=450&height=450&bgcolor=cfd6e5&bbox=431269.31870141765,214598.0795610425,436619.11294010084,219947.8737997257&exception=application/vnd.ogc.se_inimage">
http://vision.edina.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wms-vision?version=1.1.0&request=getMap&layers=newpop%2Csmall_1920%2Cmed_1904&styles=&SRS=EPSG:27700&Format=image/png&width=450&height=450&bgcolor=cfd6e5&bbox=431269.31870141765,214598.0795610425,436619.11294010084,219947.8737997257&exception=application/vnd.ogc.se_inimage
</a> <br>
</div><br>
It dates from the 1940s and thus is out of copyright! It might be
enough to get you started - I'd reccomend Tyler's book and UDIG as an
OS Desktop GIS. You should be able to explore the dataset I've pointed
to above by opening <a href="http://vision.edina.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wms-vision?version=1.1.0&request=getMap&layers=newpop%2Csmall_1920%2Cmed_1904&styles=&SRS=EPSG:27700&Format=image/png&width=450&height=450&bgcolor=cfd6e5&bbox=431269.31870141765,214598.0795610425,436619.11294010084,219947.8737997257&exception=application/vnd.ogc.se_inimage">
http://vision.edina.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wms-vision?</a> in the web map layer wizard.<br>
<br>
Ian<br>
<br>
</div>-- <br><br>Ian Turton<br><a href="http://www.geotools.org">http://www.geotools.org</a><br><a href="http://pennspace.blogspot.com/">http://pennspace.blogspot.com/</a>