DJA wrote:
I also wish there were something equivalent for Linux. Now that I have a
laptop, Mapping software is on my short list of "Why doesn't Linux
Have..." - not too far below OCR software that works for under $1000.
Well, if any developers have a little ambition and time, a mapping application
based upon MapServer (http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/) could be made in relatively
short order.
Here's the steps one would go through to make one on par with the various
Windows applications:
1. Get MapServer and install it (it's free).
2. Get the map data from the US Census bureau for free or for the cost of the
media. Last time I did it (in 1999) it was 2GB of BZIP2 data, expanded to over
16GB for just California.
3. Decompress and convert the data.
4. Use one of the various MapServer API interfaces (Java, Perl, C, PHP, maybe
others - it's been a while) to develop an application.
5. As a bonus, you could even D/L satellite images and overlay them onto the map
data.
6. Wrap the whole thing up into a nice neat package for people to use.
The toughest part would be writing a traveling salesman algorithm, though I'm
sure there are several on the Internet.
Apparently there's been no one with either the ambition or the time to do this.
I've done something close once (again, in 1999), but I only had San Diego
County, had no traveling salesman algorithm, and it used a web browser. (I
actually did have a couple states set up for testing other things, but they
weren't part of the application itself.)
PGA
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Paul G. Allen
Owner, Sr. Engineer, Security Specialist
Random Logic/Dream Park
www.randomlogic.com
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