let's standardize sites

[Darrell McCauley]

I think that we're in agreement that the situation with all of the
different site formats is a mess. Each program requires something
different and some don't spell out the format in the manual page.

So, after talking with some folks, I feel it's time that we
come to agreement on a standard format.  The format that I'm proposing
is the following:

 east|north|#n label

where 'n' is an integer and 'label' is a string, usually numeric.

The '#n' is, to my knowledge, only required by two programs: s.menu
and s.voronoi. It gives the category number that you find in raster
and vector files, respectively. Other programs dont *need* this, but
if we're going settle on common ground, it's probably necessary
that we retain the '#n' in ALL SITE LISTS.

The 'label' will almost always be a floating-point value, unless of
course, the sites list doubles as a paint labels file or there is some
other need for string data (e.g., soil association or other
qualitative data). All sites program that do calculations on the
z-component of (x,y,z) data will use the numeric 'label'---the 'n' in
'#n' will NOT be used for calculations. 

I've been told that Helena is willing to make her code conform to
this standard. I'm willing to fix all of my s.progs. Are there any
objections to this format becoming the standard?

--Darrell

James Darrell McCauley, Purdue Univ, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1146, USA
mccauley at ecn.purdue.edu, mccauley%ecn at purccvm.bitnet, pur-ee!mccauley