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

[dylan]

forgot to mention: here is a small collection of useful GIS/mapping links
that i have put together... along with a lot of other unrelated stuff
(ignore that)

http://fungus.ucdavis.edu/~dylan/gis/

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.