[ gpsdrive ] No developer question, but a question about an older version of gpsdrive

[Guenther Meyer]

Am Sonntag 21 Oktober 2007 schrieb Hamish:
> FWIW I much prefer simple x,y,z,icon_int,label flat text format for ease of
> use.
> Right now I can generate needed way points with a couple of simple unix
> tools without having to resort to gpsbabel or even awk to do the magic.
> Simple tab separated text files are bloat free, simple to scan though by
> eye with less, trivial create with fprintf(), and AFAICS XML adds little
> benefit to the required information. What it does allow is the flexibility
> to
> add/remove/rearrange columns ad hoc. Personally I am more concerned with
> x,y,z,icon_int,label and simplicity than with extended POI attributes.
>
> So my question is: what are the extended waypoint attributes planned or in
> use that justify the added complexity? Or is this being looked at from the
> point of view of simplicity for the user being able use a common format,
> not simplicity for the code?
>
> I am not against having support for gpx, I just would like to understand..
> Why not allow both formats?
>
I understand your concerns, cvs files are simple and bloat free, but here are 
some reasons for gpx:
- gpx is a fully documented, well supported format for such data
- the user won't have to deal with "proprietary" gpsdrive formats
- the code inside gpsdrive will be much easier to maintain, because we won't 
have to handle different file formats and features; everything that is a kind 
of waypoint will be handled by the same code.
- gpx is way more flexible, you can store more information in a simple way 
(like storing the routing information thomas did inside one file, adding 
address or other info to your waypoints, ...).
- i18n: because of utf8 support and the xml-format any kind of char should be 
supported for waypoint names and infos, including commas, spaces, ...
- gpx can also be written with simple fprintf(), and also edited with a plain 
text editor.
 
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