[Freegis-list] Mapping source code.

[Jan-Oliver Wagner]

Hello Tony,

On Tue, May 15, 2001 at 10:35:09PM -0600, Tony Field wrote:
> I have written a map display program based upon a subset of the CIA
> data base (see the Azimuth program on my web page
> http://www.nucleus.com/~field ).  Since this data base is not suitable
> for map colouring,
> I am looking for data files and source code to allow at least Mercator
> and Azimuth maps (and any other projections possible) that would allow
> coloured map drawing. If this is available, the final program would be
> released as freeware.

you have come upon a crucial point: the lack of free geographic base data.
Especially the lack of current and good quality (world-wide) vector maps.
There are a lot geographic data out there that may serve your
needs (as I see you need polygons for all countries) of
which are some free but not up-to-date (VMAP). You surely will find
some other maps where the legal status is not explained.

As for the projections: you can use PROJ (http://www.remotesensing.org/proj/)
to produce all of the usual projections. To my mind it is the
most trusted and stable converter of this type.
It is Free Software under MIT License.

It would be great if you release your tool as Free Software and
I would be happy to list it on FreeGIS. However, the term 'freeware'
usually is used for a certain type of non-free software (note that
I use the term Free Software in the sense of the FSF:
http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/categories.html).

Cheers

	Jan

-- 
Jan-Oliver Wagner               http://intevation.de/~jan/

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