Lat and Long · AditNow Community

Mine exploration, photographs and mining history for mine explorers, industrial archaeologists, researchers and historians

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

simonrl
51% (Neutral)
Administration Topic Starter

17 years ago

A general question on lat and long. Is the general preference for displaying them in traditional degrees/minutes/seconds N/S and E/W

23° 27' 30'''' S for example

Or in the decimal format

-23.4853

Given most hand held GPS units (and Google Maps) use the decimal format I'm inclined to say that would be easier to deal with.

Any thoughts from anybody?

my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by

Wanna join the discussion?! Login to your AditNow Community forum account or Register a new forum account

jagman
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

Traditional is my preference.
I suppose I'm just an old fashioned sorta bloke 🙂

carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

The Google maps use the traditional format as well but not GR of course.

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

simonrl
51% (Neutral)
Administration Topic Starter

17 years ago

Are you sure you don't prefer the decimal version, they'd be easier to handle and manipulate :flowers: :flowers:

my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by

stevem
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

Don't matter to me....
http://www.russ-hore.co.uk/osgb/index.php
😉
But we do use minutes etc for all our oceanographic deployments...keeps the ships captains happy 😉

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who
screws up your day and may their arms be too short to scratch.

simonrl
51% (Neutral)
Administration Topic Starter

17 years ago

Would there be any strong objections if I used decimal for a new site feature? It's not to cause problems, it's just that to make the data entry perfect if we used degrees / minutes / sections then it needs 4 separate drop-downs for each lat and long:

degrees (0-90 and 0-180)
minutes (0-60)
seconds (0-60)
N/E and S/W

Using decimal still needs three inputs, but in terms of displaying the data back and handling it for displaying Google maps it would make things easier. Plus I think most hand held GPS units default to decimal?

my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by

carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

"simonrl" wrote:
Are you sure you don't prefer the decimal version, they'd be easier to handle and manipulate :flowers: :flowers:

I'm no doubt being a bit thick here but to what does the original 'display them' refer? I realise map refs but what context?

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

simonrl
51% (Neutral)
Administration Topic Starter

17 years ago

Ah, yes, sorry, I'm being ambiguous. They're not actually displayed anywhere yet, nor even entered. It's a new site feature that will (optionally) use them.

my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by

stevem
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

I'm sure there is some European law that states you have to use decimal instead of traditional just like you can't use pounds and ounces 😉

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of the person who
screws up your day and may their arms be too short to scratch.

davel
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

#10

"simonrl" wrote:
Would there be any strong objections if I used decimal for a new site feature? It's not to cause problems, it's just that to make the data entry perfect if we used degrees / minutes / sections then it needs 4 separate drop-downs for each lat and long:

Why not provide a plain text input field and parse it in JavaScript - if there's single decimal point then the entry is decimal degrees, otherwise look for (say) ddd-mm-ss format for degrees-minutes-seconds (the seconds should be optional) and anything that doesn't match that or is out of range evokes an appropriate error dialogue. (Well, that's how I'd do it.)

Dave

simonrl
51% (Neutral)
Administration Topic Starter

17 years ago

#11

"davel" wrote:

"simonrl" wrote:
Would there be any strong objections if I used decimal for a new site feature? It's not to cause problems, it's just that to make the data entry perfect if we used degrees / minutes / sections then it needs 4 separate drop-downs for each lat and long:

Why not provide a plain text input field and parse it in JavaScript - if there's single decimal point then the entry is decimal degrees, otherwise look for (say) ddd-mm-ss format for degrees-minutes-seconds (the seconds should be optional) and anything that doesn't match that or is out of range evokes an appropriate error dialogue. (Well, that's how I'd do it.)

Dave

That's certainly a full and correct way of doing it, and I could implement that in a future upgrade. But currently needs must and I've got clients asking me why their web sites are three weeks late 😉

my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by

mountainpenguin
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

#12

OHH OHH can you make them downloadable please ala the geocaching site..
Its pretty simple xml.
Then they can be converted by gpsbable and lobbed at a gps.

simonrl
51% (Neutral)
Administration Topic Starter

17 years ago

#13

"mountainpenguin" wrote:
OHH OHH can you make them downloadable please ala the geocaching site..
Its pretty simple xml.
Then they can be converted by gpsbable and lobbed at a gps.

Maybe next week 😉

my orders are to sit here and watch the world go by

sparty_lea
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

#14

'fraid I only use degrees etc, presumably there some formula to convert that to decimal?

There are 10 types of people in the world.

Those that understand binary and those that do not!

carnkie
50.2% (Neutral)
Newbie

17 years ago

#15

"sparty_lea" wrote:
'fraid I only use degrees etc, presumably there some formula to convert that to decimal?

You can do it with a calculator here.

http://www.beg.utexas.edu/GIS/tools/DMS_DD.htm

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.