Query Question...

[Erich Schroeder]

Hi,
  I think that it would be reasonable to have a number of tools to build a
mapfile. Perl/TK would be great, particularly for applications where they
already work in shapefiles.

  One thing that I was wondering about, is it possible to parse out an
ArcView project file to produce an initial mapfile? That would, at least,
have the proper (reversed) order of the layers, the thematic divisions
within the layers, color choices(?), and joins. Is there, perhaps,
something within the layout view that could be used?

  In my case I'll probably get back to the AML version because we always
work with the native A/I coverages, and don't do too much in ArcView
except for publishing for the users. I think that the AML route would be
much helped by using form menus allowing for more flexibility, perhaps
storing information in a temporary info file which then can be used to
dump the final mapfile draft.

  It was about 2 years ago that I first tried mapserver. At that time I
was looking for a method to replace the old
arcplot==>postscript==>ghostscript==>netpbm method that I had used before.
Although at that time I got the mapserver demo to work (I think version
2.1) I couldn't get my own data to work and so opted for Jshape instead.
But I still have a large application that I need to redo as it has
been offline since we put in our firewall, and now I think that I can
manage it. 

Thanks everyone for their help, and I'll post a summary to my newbie
questions soon.

Erich

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Erich Schroeder                    Phone: (217)785-0033
Curator, Information Technologies  FAX:   (217)785-2857
Illinois State Museum GIS Lab      Internet: erich at museum.state.il.us
http://www.museum.state.il.us/ismdepts/anthro/staff/erich/erich.html
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