A Better Breed of GPS Software?

willo asks: "I recently built an on board computer for my Grand Cherokee. The initial uses for it include music, gps navigation, on board diagnostics and a baby cam so I can see how my kid is in that rear facing seat. After lots of research and testing, I'm really disappointed with the mapping software out there for Linux. Gpsdrive provides the basic functionality I need, but the street names are built into the image and are difficult to read at a glance while driving. Not to mention that it has to download the maps it needs ahead of time. Xastir can handle almost any map out there, but it reads through every map for each redraw! It also seems to lack the ability to zoom intelligently based on location. Note that it's not really designed to be a navigation aid, but rather a ham radio APRS tool. (I am a ham). Delorme Street Atlas USA does what I really want, but it's been a pain to make run properly under wine. Is anyone else out there working on a decent navigation application?"

"To be really usable navigation software should do the following:

• handle maps efficiently and draw them quickly
• have intelligently organized map sets for countries/states. (You can't download a friggin map in the middle of Montana!)
• include serial gps/gpsd support. (just about everyone has this)

I've found a few references to mapping projects that seem to just be vaporware.

Map Sources do exist for this! Bruce Perens made TIGER/line data availible. NAVTECH is the map source for pretty much all the vehicle navigation systems out there, and high resolution maps are availible from the Geographical Information Survey."

Comments

Try building your own GPS mapping software....

[chaeron]

...if you can code in Java, my open source GPS library will make this a much easier process. Demo applications are included (for PC's and Palm's).

All at Chaeron GPS Software

Also check out the Mobile GPS Demonstration Platform (MGDP) project info (in .pdf format). I built some mapping/tracking display software (based on the GPS Library) that is used as part of this project.

Enjoy!

GPS Mapping Software

[topografix]

I write GPS mapping software for Windows, aimed at the outdoor recreation market. You can check it out at http://www.expertgps.com/
ExpertGPS is unique in that it pulls down topo maps and aerial photos over your Internet connection, so you can scroll the map across the country and the program automatically downloads and displays the correct maps. For the geocachers out there, ExpertGPS reads geocache data downloaded from http://www.geocaching.com/, and even links back to the geocaching website to report your finds.
The next release will support scanned paper maps and additional file formats, and a PocketPC version is in the works.
About a year ago, a bunch of GPS developers got together to work on a standard XML file format for exchanging GPS data. A number of programs now support GPX (the GPS Exchange format), including programs for Mac, Windows, and Linux. For details, see http://www.topografix.com/gpx_resources.asp

xastir

[ipb]

More intelligent map handling is in the works for Xastir. For things like Tiger maps it already doesn't read thru every map for each redraw and the maps are nicely detailed. And organizing the tigermap sets is high on the list of todo's.

If you see features that are needed, come on by the sourceforge project page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/xastir/ and leave a feature request. Or join us on the mailing lists at: http://krypton.hscs.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/ xastir-dev and http://krypton.hscs.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/ xastir The developers are active and very responsive to reasonable feature requests. (heck we even accept some of the unreasonable ones :-)

Make your own using GRASS

[Billy the Mountain]

Although GRASS (GPL) is just now running on PC's via Cygwin, it was designed as a Unix GIS. What it provides:

* A framework for organizing, storing and retrieving maps.

* Map information that can be presented multiple layers at a time.

* A means of generating an image file based on various map layers.

* A map feature attribute mechanism. This is what allows you to control street names and how they appear as you zoom in and out.

* A C api with over 800 GIS functions. (Also a Java interface)

With GRASS, you could write a C program that monitors the GPS fix queries the map database and repeatadly presents the info as a image on your screen.

BTM