[MetaCRS] "FOSS Maintained" Source of CRS Definitions

[Landon Blake]

I'm going to try out my first "non-java" metacrs post, so go easy on me.
:]

 

I know that there are a couple of different sources for common CRS
definitions used by the different CRS programming libraries. For
example, there is the EPSG database, Proj4, and maybe something from the
OGC?

 

I was wondering if there had ever been any effort to consolidate these
different sources of definitions into a single data product maintained
by an "open source" organization like the OSGeo. Maybe this data product
is an XML file, maybe it is a group of text files, or maybe it is
something else that I haven't thought of.

 

I suspect each of the different CRS programming libraries has someone
that is trying to keep up with changes and additions to the CRS
definitions from the different sources mentioned above. I wonder if
working together to consolidate multiple CRS definition sources into a
single "FOSS maintained" source might save us all some work.

 

There is already a "standard" and open format for CRS definitions,
namely WKT, correct? Couldn't this be used? (I know there are thousands
of CRS definitions, but we could use streaming access to a text file, at
least on the Java side of things.)

 

When I first started to look at the GeoTools CRS source code I was very
confused about the source of CRS definitions. Of course, I understand
where they came from now, but I was surprised that we were depending on
a bunch of land surveyors that work for oil companies for CRS
definitions. :]

 

At any rate, maybe there is already some type of "single source" for CRS
definitions already in existence. But I thought it didn't hurt to ask.

 

It would seem that this would be one area that programmers using
different languages could cooperate.

 

Landon

 

 



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