Heading (where ??)

[Gerald I. Evenden]

>Date: Fri, 23 Jul 93 09:20:31 CDT
>From: neidig at vinny.cecer.army.mil (Craig Neidig)
>To: grassu-list at max.cecer.army.mil
>Subject: Re: Heading (where ??)
>
>Dear GRASS-WORLD:
>
>Does not the USGS or other federal agency have any existing 
>products that deal with COGO (coordinate geometry) 
>applications/conversions; or are there not commercial products
>that have potential for partnership development with GRASS;

Excluding CERL/GRASS and my activities, my experience has determined
three principle sources of material related to cartographic-geodetic
software: National Geodetic Survey (NGS), DMA and the USGS National
Mapping Division (NMD).  But DMA's material is difficult to get since
they are still fighting the Cold War.  The code available from these
agencies is still in FORTRAN and in one case BASIC(!).

As far as commercial material, it is hard to tell, since whatever
is available is usually buried in a larger package.  I am aware of
one outfit which sells a global transformation package for $10kUS.

Restricting the subject to projections, Snyder remarked to me that
he was aware of only GCTP and the aforementioned package as being
available.  And GCTP is confused by different versions being offered by
both the USGS and NGS.  Also, USGS site isdres.er.usgs.gov also has
a version going back to IBM G FORTRAN of the mid 60's.

I suspect that some universities may have sources, but they don't
seem to be advertising them.

>it seems like the same thing over and over again -- reinventing
>the wheel -- people want to write code for GRASS before fully 
>investigating whether we can get the capability from an existing system --

I don't see reworking old procedures and encoding documented methods
as bad or counter productive.   A good deal of my material is translated
FORTRAN code from a variety of sources.  But along with translation
goes a lot of cleanup of some pretty poor material.  All systems should
be reviewed and possbly recoded ever five or so years.

Secondly, most material is so poorly encapsulated that a lot of work
has to go into fitting it into another application.  One must remember
that most of this material was coded by geodesists where coding
techniques were rarely mentioned nor comprehended---common use of
FORTRAN is testamony to this observation.

>OGF, where are you ??
>
>Craig Neidig
>USACERL-TAS

Gerald (Jerry) I. Evenden   Internet: gie at charon.er.usgs.gov
voice: (508)563-6766          Postal: P.O. Box 1027
  fax: (508)457-2310                  N.Falmouth, MA 02556-1027