[MetaCRS] Quick and Dirty CSV File

[Martin Davis]

Landon Blake wrote:
> This is harder than I thought. :]
>
> Martin wrote: "- I'm not crazy about the "Northing:nnnn" format. Seems
> hard to parse, and what exactly is being communicated by this prefix? I
> think Norm is on the money with his suggestion that the CRS determines
> the 
> interpretation of the ordinate values."
>
> The ordinate prefix eliminates the need to remember the order of
> ordinate values, and would also give the parser a clue to the format for
> the value that follows. I don't need to worry about parsing a value in
> DMS format for an ellipsoid height that is always in meters.
>
> I don't know about Python or Javascript, but you can split the ordinate
> prefix from the ordinate value pretty simply with the built in
> String.split function.
>
> Still, if the consensus is that this it too hard to parse, we can drop
> the prefix.
>
>   
It's easy to write a custom parser to do this, but as Norm said one of 
the advantages of using CSV is that it can be consumed by numerous tools 
- many of which won't be able to easily parse out prefixes.

Also, you will have to rigorously define the set of prefixes used and 
their semantics.  This is more documentation to maintain and more 
conceptual weight for users to understand.

If this information is desired, I would suggest breaking it out into 
extra columns.


-- 
Martin Davis
Senior Technical Architect
Refractions Research, Inc.
(250) 383-3022