[kde-edu]: Added support for MGRS

Torsten Rahn tackat at t-online.de
Thu Jul 23 16:45:29 CEST 2009


I found some time to look deeper into the issue. So here's some update:

> A) There doesn't seem to be a license for your library (Or I missed it).

So most of libmgrs is based on the mgrs source code  of GEOTRANS.

Looking at the Terms of Use I see that they are basically BSD style. BSD style 
is fine for me for usage in Marble.

Could you give us some insight what has changed in your package compared to 
the original one? :-) And how are the changes licensed?

As I said I feel reluctant to create another library dependency here. Instead 
I'd like to incorporate the files and provide some Qt/C++ style API for access. 
For this we need proper license headers according to KDE policy. Any thoughts 
on this?

Regards,

Torsten


> This needs to be addressed somehow. Ideally (for Marble) you'd choose
> something that is compatible (like BSD or LGPL2+)
>
> B) From what I see the library contains only very few files. One of the
> important goals for our Marble library is that ideally we don't want to
> have dependencies on other libraries except for Qt. This is especially
> valid for functionality that we regard essential (and I think that UTM and
> MGRS support are quite essential for many reasons). The reason is of course
> that we want to make it easy for people to build and port Marble and keep
> it cross plattform.
>
> :-) I know so much GIS frameworks and applications which rely on several
>
> obscure libraries which each have their own build system / plattform
> limitations etc. that it's not funny. I don't want to introduce this
> problem in Marble.
>
> From what I see the libmgrs only contains less than a dozen .c/.h file.
> So the question is whether we can move/copy the source code to some place
> below marble/src/lib.
>
> C) Not so much a problem but: The library is C code. Marble uses C++
> throughout the library.
> I wonder whether we/you can create some nice namespace or even a class that
> holds these methods.
>
> > What I'm currently working on (pointers/help appreciated):
> >   - Choosing MGRS notation form the settings panel
> >   - Regex 5 for the fromString-function
>
> Sounds awesome. Choosing MGRS notation from the settings panel should be
> trivial to add: You need to adjust the .ui file.
> Are you using the Qt-Only or KDE version of Marble? There could be a
> difference regarding settings handling: You probably also need to adjust
> settings saving and loading for the marble_part and/or the QtMainWindow
> class (for the Qt-Only case also in your application).
> The Regex 5 support for the fromString function might be a bit tricky
> indeed (and in fact the current fromString method certainly has its
> limits).
>
> Another bullet point that is missing on your list and that I'd love to see:
>
> * Support for UTM and MGRS in the Graticule plugin (that is the coordinate
> grid). I'd like to be able to see a visualization of the coordinate system:
>
> See marble/src/plugins/render/graticule/GraticulePlugin.cpp
>
> If you feel like it you can join us on #kde-edu or #marble-devel (I will be
> away during this evening though).
>
> Best Regards,
> Torsten
>
> Am Donnerstag 23 Juli 2009 10:46:43 schrieb Gleisner Carl:
> > as part of our project (MilOS) I've added support for MGRS notation of
> > coordinates in Marble. MGRS is the <a
> > href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grid_reference_system
> > ">Military Grid Reference System (Wikipedia)</a>.
> >
> > You can download my MGRS-lib which is based on the National Geospatial-
> > Intelligence Agency's <a href="http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/
> > geotrans/"> GEOTRANS</a>. It compiles on FreeBSD 7.2 with GNU Make
> > (working on portability). The makefile is probably sloppy but life is
> > just one big tutorial right?
> >
> > The library lives here <a
> > href="http://carl-johansson.com/milos/libmgrs.tar.gz ">libmgrs.tar.gz</a>
> >
> > And the patch lives here <a
> > href="http://carl-johansson.com/milos/mgrs.patch ">mgrs.patch</a>
> >
> > What I'm currently working on (pointers/help appreciated):
> >   - Choosing MGRS notation form the settings panel
> >   - Regex 5 for the fromString-function
> >
> > Though somebody probably knows how to to this properly.
> >
> > This is all good for our project _but_ also gives the added advantage
> > of UTM notation (something that Google Earth has but Marble doesn't).
> >
> >
> > I hope you like it!
> > Carl Gleisner
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > kde-edu mailing list
> > kde-edu at mail.kde.org
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-edu


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