Re: [Pharo-users] GPS / Longitude / Latitude library

[Benoit St-Jean via Pharo-users]

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Hi Alistair!

First off, thanks for the "thank you note" in this email & on GitHub.

Would you be interested in working on a port of GeoSphere (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/geosphere/geosphere.pdf) to Pharo ?  I'll have some spare time in the next weeks so we could work on that together.  Since this package is widely known and used, it could serve as a base for a Geo package for Pharo.  I have R installed with this package here so cross-checking Pharo results vs R calculations wouldn't be a problem!  That also means plenty of unit tests are possible !  ;)

I noticed (at least on Pharo 6.1) that you reference "WebBrowser" which is either present in P7 (and not in P6) or it indicates a dependency problem.

I also noticed that you use the WGS84 reference ellipsoid as a hardcoded constant (in other works, assuming the earth radius is 6378137 meters for all calculations).  Modifying the code to have reference ellipsoids objects and use the WGS84 as the default (which is what everyone uses) would be a more flexible solution. Besides, it would also allow funky stuff like being able to use the same framework to work for every known spatial body like say, the Moon or Mars or whatever! Besides, that way (using reference ellipsoid objects), older maps/coordinates/calculations could still be used just by changing the ellipsoid reference.

Let me know if you're interested!

P.S.  I couldn't find a similar package/framework for Pharo/Squeak/WhateverSmalltalk.  If I missed it, let me know guys!!  I'm not a big fan of reinventing the wheel!!

On 2018-12-19 02:32, Alistair Grant wrote:

Hi All,

If anyone is interested, I've created the beginnings of a library for
handling coordinates at: https://github.com/akgrant43/GeoSphere

It only:

- Parses string coordinates
- Calculates the distance between coordinates
- Opens a web browser in OpenStreetMap at the receiver's coordinates

Examples of string formats that can be parsed:

- 144.61025 @ -38.28697
- 38° 17′ 13.09″ S, 144° 36′ 36.9″ E
- 38 deg 17' 13.09" S, 144 deg 36' 36.9" E
- https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=18/-38.28697/144.61025

The distance calculation uses haversine (assumes the earth is a
sphere), which is good enough for my needs at the moment.

Thanks again to Sven, Benoit, Pierce and Richard for their input.

Cheers,
Alistair

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Benoît St-Jean
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