[FOSS-GPS] Contributing to FoxtrotGPS

[Brian Wilson]

> This is interesting--I'll have to learn about it. I'm skimming
> through the Wikipedia article, and some of the sites to which it links,
> right now. Do you have any specific docs that I should read?
>
> Is the rest of the world doing something substantially similar,
> or is this really just a US-only thing?

It is derived from a military system used by US and NATO called MGRS
(Military Grid Reference System). When using NAD83 datum (the default)
they are the same.

I don't know if anyone else is using it. Most of the firefighters I
have talked to say they are not using it yet but then they also seldom
use latlon either. As cellphones and E911 support improve I think
using coordinates will become very common. It is still pretty new in
dispatch centers. I've been working with street addresses and they are
a real mess. I'd much rather have firefighters sent to my geoaddress
than die because they get dispatched to the same street address in the
wrong county. http://www.911dispatch.com/2010/10/county-lines-cellular-complicate-fire-response/

The Wikipedia pages are a good start and contain references.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grid_reference_system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNG

I suppose advocating for this opens the door to supporting any and all
reference systems, not really a bad thing as long as the person(s) who
want their reference system supported are willing to add the code...
it does bring up the user interface issue though.

> -rozzin.

Brian Wilson
Corvallis Oregon