[Proj] Question on colon DMS format

[Hamish]

Gerald wrote:
> Maybe someone here is familiar with what I call the colon
> format for DMS display where degree-minute-seconds are in
> the from of DDD:MM:SS.SSS[NEWS] or perhaps sign prefixed.

colon separated DMS sounds as clear as it can be to me.

> The quesion is: can only one colon be present such as for
> DDD:MM.MMM such as allowable in DMS as DDDdmm.mmm[']?

GRASS still uses this format, the following are allowed:

DDDh
 (DDD.DDDDDDh is not allowed, as E has problems with
  mistranslation into e.g. e+06; so +/- DDD.DDDDD must be
  used there; could probably be coded around but currently isn't)
DDD:MMh
DDD:MM.MMMMh  (recently added to deal with GPS output)
DDD:MM:SSh
DDD:MM:SS.SSSSSh

GRASS enforces %02d for MM and SS input, but I don't think
that's necessary and have considered removing it.


> This is immaterial for proj_dms2rad as it accepts all of
> them but I was curious if users should be careful to
> exclude anything less then the two colon format for
> proj_rad2dms output format specification.
> 
> The first time I encountered the colon format was at the
> CERL Grass group in Illinois many, many years ago.  I see
> it occasionally elsewhere.
>
> Also, is anyone familiar with any other DMS format?

simple space separated, but then most of the time I've spent
dealing with that is sorting out if the end numbers are
recorded as seconds and no decimal place or minutes with
decimal place (and changing with the operator on duty.. argh)

and using a degree ascii char, but then that always goes nuts
when the LANG setting changes.

the many gpsbabel format filters might give you an idea of what
else is used.



Hamish