Maps anybody

[Gordon Guthrie, BTP, BT, SE]

Joe Armstrong wrote:

>   Does anybody know anything about digital maps?

For my sins, yes I do...

>   I would like an outline map of the world - just a list of vectors.

The best known source for 'free' GIS stuff is the GRASS site, the open
source GIS system which can be found at:
http://www.geog.uni-hannover.de/grass/

And its free data is at: http://www.geog.uni-hannover.de/grass/data.html

There is also this compendium of free gis stuff:
http://www.freegis.org/index.en.html

With free data at:
http://www.freegis.org/geo-data.en.html

>   Also, can anybody know the answers to the following questions?
> 
> 	- what are the most common formats for digital maps?
> 	- where can I obtain detailed free world/regional maps?
> 	- where are the formats specified
> 	- is there any Erlang code to parse/transform/plot map data?

What maps I have bought have just been small urban A-Z type stuff, I just
read the projection info off the CD, configure my geopoint info
appropriately and then forget all the
mercator/peters/projection/elliptical/headache stuff I'm afraid...

You should be able to find the 'hardcore'' technical mapping stuff you want
somewhere on these sites - better you than me ;->

Gordon

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