Re: [Gpsbabel-code] distance from arc filter

[Robert L. <rob...@us...>]

Ron Parker wrote:
> I've created a filter module for gpsbabel that can be used to exclude all
> points greater than a given distance from a given arc.  An "arc" is a

Wow.   The math makes my head hurt.

I resisted the urge to "add value" to this and pretty much checked it in
wholescale.    Just a few comments, most of which are optional:

Can you please write a coherent paragraph or two for the README on this?
(This is the least optional of my haggling. :-)

In arcdist_process, consider making that first test

	if (arcfile == NULL) {
		fatal(MYNAME ":Can't open %s for reading.\n",arcfileopt);
	}

and fixing the subsequent indention.

Should lon1 be initted to -BADVAL?

Make the second argument to fgets  be 'sizeof(line)'.

Test the return of sscanf.  If not "2", then throw the user a bone that
they used a screwy poly file.

[ Note to self: I *knew* I should have made waypt_head static and made
people use the (poorly named) waypt_disp_all(). I guess I'll deal with
that later. ]

If you do a "normal" straight-line route with, say, Mapsource or Mapsend
and get 20-30 waypoints along the interstate are you likely to get
satisfactory results given an input "swath" that's wide enough to catch
the road or do you really need the SA precision of a zillion interim
points?

Is there still value in me eyeballing your earlier tool to read the SA
files?

> the public CVS repository doesn't seem to track the real thing very
> well these days.

I'm growing increasingly unamused with sourceforge, but I can't afford
to produce infrastructure that's any better.  I couldn't do it for a
much larger project in the height of the dotcom era and the price has
only gone up since then. If you get a sf developer account -they're
free and relatively painless to setup- the CVS access isn't flawless,
but it's quite reasonable, unlike what anon users get these days.  For
anyone that really wants to track GPSBabel, I recommend it.

In fact, I'd like to "promote" you and Alex Mottram to
write-after-approval status for GPSBabel.  That way, if I don't make it
back from some terrain 5 cache in the middle of the mountains, GPSBabel
can carry on.

I don't think I'm being a bottleneck, and would still like to see what
goes into the tree via patches to the the -code list, but you two have
shown such judgement and innovation in Babelsville that I'd be delighted
to let you have more "power" if you're interested.  Just send me your sf
account name privately and I'll flip the switch...

Hey, more Babel-heads!

> I'm seriously considering creating another similar filter that can return
> just the list of waypoints that fall within a given polygonal region,
> defined similarly.

You go, dude! :-)

RJL