Author Archives: leigh
One of the most recognizable and beloved map products of all time is the USGS 7.5′ quadrangle topographic map, commonly known as a ‘quad’. These maps have been available to buy in paper format for many years, and are considered a definitive reference by backcountry users, such as hikers, campers, and fishing enthusiasts. These maps […]
“Cartographic Design for Web Maps” is a new blog post from the ESRI Mapping Center. Written by Aileen Buckley, it is a fairly good primer on the principles of cartographic design. Of particular interest was the visual efficiency chart. On a related note, it’s interesting to note that we’ve supposedly given up on the idea […]
In Part 1 of this tutorial, I wrote about getting Linux to recognize and manage your Garmin GPS unit. Now that everything is set up, we can begin to explore how to make use of the GPS. Most of the work behind the scenes is made possible by the garmin_gps module, which is included by […]
Interacting with your hiking/personal Garmin GPS unit in Linux can be simple and rewarding. However, getting started takes a lot of work behind the scenes. This tutorial requires you to execute terminal commands and modify read-only files, so it is for intermediate to expert users only. Before beginning, make sure that the following packages are […]
Normally, I’m not a fan of Microsoft’s graphic design work. Their UI design, especially in Windows, is barely passable, compared to the innovative work in Apple’s OS X and the KDE project. It seems reasonable that their mapping UI would be equally horrid, and that, along with the ubiquity of Google Maps, has relegated Bing […]
if Python
By leigh | July 20, 2011
In some ways, Python is a very user-friendly language. But it can be very finicky about indentation. Instead of relying on white space and parentheses to impart structure, it uses exacting syntax. To an inexperienced programmer, this is not a problem – in fact, it makes writing scripts very easy to learn. Experienced programmers, on […]
The Python programming language, which has become the standard for scripting in ArcGIS 10.x, is quite versatile, and has a very natural language style. One specific difference from earlier languages (like C) is that variables don’t have to be declared or cast. Instead, they can be declared and assigned in the same statement. Variables have […]
British GIS site web-gis.co.uk is currently hosting a poll about GIS data formats. Not too many people have voted yet, but a clear trend is already emerging. The data suggests that PostGIS has been gaining a lot of ground, eclipsing other popular proprietary data formats. Here’s the current breakdown: PostgreSQL/PostGIS – 17 votes, 65.4% Proprietary […]
Adding a Google map to your website isn’t terribly difficult, as long as you’ve read some documentation and understand a little JavaScript. But when it comes to displaying maps in a blog or CMS, adding custom JavaScript via a WYSIWYG interface can be tricky. This site is powered by the WordPress CMS, and I’m not […]
