[vox-tech] Has anyone done cartography on Linux?

[dylan]

GRASS is a great product, and if you ever did want to give it a go- I would
strongly recommend compiling from source. the debian packages are horribly
out of date.

you can get the latest versions here:
http://grass.itc.it/

another place to try is:
http://opensourcegis.org/

a pile of opensource GIS and GIS-like applications.

If you ever want to give GRASS a try, then i would certainly recommend the
mailing list- lots of helpful people there!

good luck!

Dylan

on 04.5.4 1:49 PM, Henry House at hajhouse@houseag.com was reported to have
writen:

> Has anyone here worked with maps on Linux? I periodically need to work with
> simple maps and I am continually frustrated with the tools that I have
> tried. Here is an example of something that I want to do:
> 
> 1. Scan an aerial photo or existing map
> 2. Mark some key points on it, connect them with lines or curves, make
> areas, etc. These might be fields or fences.
> 3. Calculate lengths and areas (for example, number of acres in a field or
> number of miles long that a fence extends).
> 
> I don't have databases of geospacial data or GPS receiver data, so I don't
> think a heavyweight GIS system what I want. The scales are normally small so
> map projections are not a major issue. Anyway, what I want to do is so
> simple that I don't think it is worth learning a complex system like GRASS
> (<http://packages.debian.org/testing/science/grass>) since I can do a crude
> job with pencil, ruler, and compensating polar planimiter* in not much time.
> Still, there is surely a better way. I am interested in any suggestions.
> 
> * A mechanical device that, when adjusted for scale, calculates the area of
> any shape that one traces on a map or photograph.