[Proj] Re: Global Gauss-Kruger and libproj4---the final story

[Gerald I. Evenden]

On Thursday 28 August 2008 12:37:36 am strebe wrote:
> On Aug 27, 2008, at 5:32:33 PM, "Gerald I. Evenden"
> <geraldi.evenden at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ________
>
> Yes, you run into them every 10 to 20 years.
>
> ________
>
> No, I run into them commonly. Perhaps you run into them every ten or twenty
> years.

Perhaps you would like to present an example.	
______
>
> No other projection has a requirement that the user needs to know an
> arcane  formula to manipulate graphical usage to interpret the results.
> There is currently no means for libproj4 to return such information.
>
> ________
>
> I do not understand that utterance. The problem has nothing to with
> "graphical usage", whatever that means. It has to do with the results of
> the projection at a single point. Many world projections do not come with a
> 90°N/S, 180° E/W natural boundary that the client software can treat as
> some fixed convention, and all projections have interruptions. An
> interruption automatically means the projection formulæ are not a function,
> which renders this utterance invalid:

The only context that I use the term "interruption" in discussing cartographic 
projections are in cases like Goode's world maps or "orange peal" charts 
often using the sinusoidal projection.  Please define what *you* mean by 
interruptions.
> ________
>
> I am tired of repeating, libproj4 is *NOT* a graphic routine any more than 
> sine or tangent. In the case of making maps it is merely the process that 
> transforms information from one coordinate system to another!

Amen!
> ________
>
> Sine and tangent are functions. A projection is not.

Let us stop here for a moment. From an online dictionary: "function (math) A 
quantity so connected with another quantity that if any alteration be made in 
the latter there will be a consequential alteration in the former."  In this 
case lat,lon <=>x,y.  Change lat,lon and you change x,y and vice versa.  The 
mechanism that determines the functional relationship is the cartographic 
transformation---a procedure that defines the relationship between two 
coordinate systems.  In the case of computing Z=f(K), f is a function.

> It is generating 
> formulæ that are (usually) a function over the range of the map except at
> boundaries, where they are multivalued. You have chosen, for your own
> convenience, to ignore the the possible multiple results of the projecting
> formulæ. That is fine, but it does not make your rant correct; it only
> makes your decision convenient for you. In any case, if you're tired of
> repeating yourself, then quit repeating yourself. I suspect everyone else
> is tired of it, too — particularly because it's a straw man.
> Would you like a list of world projections whose boundaries differ from the
> boundaries of finite cylindric projections?

I am aware of some, especially those I call cartoon projections (I do not mean 
that in a pejorative way) like those that plot the world on a cube or some 
other solid or ones with very odd boundary system.  These are usually very 
interrupted projections requiring difficult geographic clipping functions 
that (other than longitude range reduction) is *not* a function of libproj4.  
We have already covered the +-180 problem and flat pole maps. Let's see, 
cylindricals, pseudocylindricals, conics, globulars, ... .  Even general 
oblique projections are no problem other than odd boundaries.  I managed to 
make plots of the above with libproj4 as it now stands.  See manual.

Please list a few provided there is a url to a picture of the listed 
projection.

> And if there are many 
> projections with other kinds of boundaries, would you explain again how it
> is that the ellipsoidal transverse Mercator is somehow unique in that
> regard?
>
> I don't care if you don't implement a global ellipsoidal transverse
> Mercator. If you don't want to implement it, then don't implement it.
> Surely no one can begrudge that — no one's paying you to, as far as I know.
> I just don't see the point of rationalizing that decision with sophistry,
> or why you'd expect your audience to swallow the rationalizations. I
> suggest just stating that you're not convinced of the value of the work, or
> that you hate the ellipsoidal transverse Mercator, or that you're tired,
> and be done with it. Which reminds me: once again, I am tired of these
> sorts of conversations, and am done with this one.

Oh gee.  But this is so much fun!  Please don't go.

> Regards,
> -- daan Strebe
	...
-- 
The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due
to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.
-- Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) British psychologist