Position Ambiguity [was] Re: [aprssig] findu.com Location...

[KC2MMI (Jared)]

Jim, you are challenging me to what? Write code for your application? Isn't that
ridiculous.

I'm not a progammer and I don't present folks with an application and them tell
them to use it. You do. You're the programmer. I have said, and do say, that
many applications are doing a misleading or incorrect job.

I have also said, quite explicity, that folks like you deserve kudos for making
the freeware available in the first place.

But you're the programmer, not me. If you presented a calculator that said "2 +
2 = something between 3 and 5" I would say your application was wrong, because
"4" is the generally correct answer.

And I've said in the past, to you directly, that if you are going to use maps
which are drawn from the TIGER data that all you need to do is either present a
disclaimer saying "These map/display positions may be wrong by xxx feet
because..." or, you can stop displaying pinpoints when they are going to be
misleadingly precise. Yes, you are relying on the works of others and those
other works apparently are the source of the errors. So? If you know about those
problems and you don't inform people about them, you are making them into
your--and our--problems too.

I just looked up a station on APRSWORLD.NET and in the default maps' "Street"
resolution, the station's position is shown by  a red star that is about 1/4 of
a block wide. It is also located on the wrong side of the street, on the wrong
block. In order for your map to accurately display the location of that station,
all you would have to do is make your default "star" three or four times the
current diameter, with the result that it would overlap both blocks, including
the real location and the bogus location you currently are showing. Now, why you
are showing the wrong location, whose fault the bad data is, and why you show a
large area of dry land as submerged, are all good topics and none of those may
be your fault.

But if you'd simply change your icons from "tiny" to "appropriate", you would
not be presenting the wrong information. Which you are, now.

If you want to *argue* about it, let's take it off list.

If you want to *work* on presenting displays that will be less misleading and
present better information, I'd be glad to discuss those opinions and concepts
on this list. But tell me that you want me to write your programming, that's not
my job. You have chosen to ignore complaints that your displays are wrong, and
you have chosen not to improve them. That's your option as the programmer. But
it is *your* display, and it is still *wrong*. That's a matter of fact, not my
opinion.