Map Test Project update

[Paul G. Allen]

I have written a utility specifically designed to concatinate shapefiles using
the Shapelib library called combine. I also had a fellow Linux user write a Perl
script to parse a directory tree, retrieve all files matching a certain pattern,
and run them through the combine program. I've used these two utilities to
combine all county data for two states, and make the states of Illinois and
Pennsylvania on my test web site (http://24.5.14.144) each into their own
shapefile. These two files initially only have county polygon data, but will
later have major roads and water polygon data. Also, since I mucked up the
conversion of the original data from TIGER/Line format to ESRI shapefile format,
I have to do it again to get the actual county names in the database. (ooppss!
:)

It looks as though MapServer, combined with Shapelib, a little Perl, some CGI,
and a yet to be found VRP will give me everything we need for our application.
Now if only I had more HDD storage for all this data! :)

Writing the utility has given me a very good understanding of shapefiles and the
Shapelib library. In fact, I found and fixed a couple of bugs in Shapelib that
bit me more than once. I'll be posting the utilities somewhere and making the
Shapelib author aware of them as well.

Anyone know where I can get an ESRI shapefile of Brazil that includes roads,
landmarks, etc.?

PGA