From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Feb 18 22:32: 4 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA0A037B401; Tue, 18 Feb 2003 22:32:02 -0800 (PST) Received: from puffin.mail.pas.earthlink.net (puffin.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.139]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DF9A043F75; Tue, 18 Feb 2003 22:32:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from pool0167.cvx21-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net ([209.179.192.167] helo=mindspring.com) by puffin.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 18lNlw-0004rT-00; Tue, 18 Feb 2003 22:32:01 -0800 Message-ID: <3E532487.CF23A1C0@mindspring.com> Date: Tue, 18 Feb 2003 22:30:31 -0800 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Nik Clayton Cc: Stephen Hilton , hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, julian@elischer.org Subject: Re: Hi!Dear FreeBSD! References: <3E3BEC87.80600@gmx.net> <20030202103721.3996ec9c.nospam@hiltonbsd.com> <20030219001535.GB6403@clan.nothing-going-on.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: b1a02af9316fbb217a47c185c03b154d40683398e744b8a43d375dab055bd1585df7a536ec36368fa7ce0e8f8d31aa3f350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Nik Clayton wrote: > On Sun, Feb 02, 2003 at 10:37:21AM -0600, Stephen Hilton wrote: > > Why not base it on latitude and longitude, along with an > > email address and text fields to allow for some self > > expression of areas of interest etc...? > > > > A clickable map would be a nice interface for the database > > lookups with a max radius factor, but really is just icing > > on the cake. > > Please, no wheel reinvention. > > http://www.pm.org/groups/index.html None of those maps are clickable. They're actually just *tiny* PNGs of maps-with-pins-in-them, with no obvious correlation to real location data associated with PERL (e.g. number of pins is not equal to number of page entries, in most cases, and the pins for Columbs, Dayton, and other Ohio locations all pops up at the same pixel location, etc.). It's really unfortunate that no one seems to be willing to put out the server resources to do real GIS mapping, e.g. using the data specifications at: http://www.opengis.org/ Given that it looks like it's membership restricted to people who can pay, and that there are no decent Open Source rendering products: http://www.opengis.org/testing/product/index.php and that it's in the best interests of the commercial vendors to keep it this way, so as to not have to compete on the basis of innovation, people are unlikely to find that this is going to change very soon, unless someone who cares enough about maps to keep suggesting that people implement this actually sit down and build the map rendering software to do the job (hint: Stephen) -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message