"Poit" wrote in message
00.119...
Something I'd like to point out: The market goes beyond boating. There
are others including aviation, automotive, sporting, surveying, research,
and I'm sure many others. NMEA is present in most if not in all of these
areas.

Indeed, because it's cheap and easy to implement.
Anything else will be more expensive and more of a hassle to connect.

This is another reason why I'd like to see changes made. Open
architecture
that is extensible, so that these other areas may be addressed easier.

Could you please explain where NMEA 0183 fails in this respect?
It is extensible, NMEA 0183 allows for "Proprietary sentences" which can be
arbitrarily defined and it really is an open standard.

Also there is enough information floating around the web to figure out
how to use it.

Ah, so that is your real point: you want all the information for free. You
think because of the fact that you have to pay to get the information, the
standard is not open. Wrong. NMEA is an open standard and available to
anyone. A closed standard like Seatalk is NOT available, except for the
reverse engineered stuff on the web.

Meindert