I tried that by building a translator program, but I had a devil of a
time of it.

Garmin does some kind of weird compression scheme which strips
adjacent data in ASCII format. Or at least that's what I think is
going on - may not be.


Not sure I follow you. Once your waypoint data is saved in the
tab-delimited ASCII file, it's pretty simple to massage it. The MapSource
export function will export all data in the file, coordinates, waypoint
names, and a bunch of other extraneous stuff, which would not apply to
uploading to another type of unit. Just open the ASCII file in Excel, or
for that matter, any text editor (Excel makes it easier to work with since
it is columnar data), and delete the data that is unnecessary to get it
ready for import. I have no idea if Northstar offers software for waypoint
management and route planning and if so, whether it would allow the
importation of text data. If it does allow for the import, it would just be
a matter of making sure the columnar data is in the order expected by the
Northstar software.

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 09:34:29 -0700, "RG" wrote:

I tried that by building a translator program, but I had a devil of a
time of it.

Garmin does some kind of weird compression scheme which strips
adjacent data in ASCII format. Or at least that's what I think is
going on - may not be.

Not sure I follow you. Once your waypoint data is saved in the
tab-delimited ASCII file, it's pretty simple to massage it. The MapSource
export function will export all data in the file, coordinates, waypoint
names, and a bunch of other extraneous stuff, which would not apply to
uploading to another type of unit. Just open the ASCII file in Excel, or
for that matter, any text editor (Excel makes it easier to work with since
it is columnar data), and delete the data that is unnecessary to get it
ready for import. I have no idea if Northstar offers software for waypoint
management and route planning and if so, whether it would allow the
importation of text data. If it does allow for the import, it would just be
a matter of making sure the columnar data is in the order expected by the
Northstar software.

Yeah, but Garmin does something funky with the data. I can't quite
figure it out, although to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. It has
to do with how the data is compressed - it's almost as if they strip
certain characters that are conjunctive with certain other characters
just to throw a monkey into the works.

I'm not saying that is what it is, but it acts like it.

All the best,

Tom
--------------

"What the hell's the deal with this newsgroup...
is there a computer terminal in the day room of
some looney bin somewhere?"

Bilgeman - circa 2004

Yeah, but Garmin does something funky with the data. I can't quite
figure it out, although to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. It has
to do with how the data is compressed - it's almost as if they strip
certain characters that are conjunctive with certain other characters
just to throw a monkey into the works.

I'm not saying that is what it is, but it acts like it.


Hmm. I'm not seeing that at all. Just pure, unadulterated ASCII text. Are
you sure you're doing a text export of the data and not a .dxf export? When
I open the exported text file into Excel, it looks just like you'd expect it
to. Waypoint names, descriptions, and coordinates all neatly arranged in
columns, represented by simple ASCII text.

I mean really, what would be the point of offering an ASCII text export of
data (sort of a baseline universal language, if you will), if you're going
to booger up the data in the process? The only reworking of the data you
might have to do to use it for another purpose is to strip out some of the
extraneous columns (data fields) that you don't need and perhaps removing
the header row. I'd be happy to email you a small sample exported file for
your review if you'd like.

On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 15:14:12 -0700, "RG" wrote:


Yeah, but Garmin does something funky with the data. I can't quite
figure it out, although to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. It has
to do with how the data is compressed - it's almost as if they strip
certain characters that are conjunctive with certain other characters
just to throw a monkey into the works.

I'm not saying that is what it is, but it acts like it.


Hmm. I'm not seeing that at all. Just pure, unadulterated ASCII text. Are
you sure you're doing a text export of the data and not a .dxf export? When
I open the exported text file into Excel, it looks just like you'd expect it
to. Waypoint names, descriptions, and coordinates all neatly arranged in
columns, represented by simple ASCII text.

I mean really, what would be the point of offering an ASCII text export of
data (sort of a baseline universal language, if you will), if you're going
to booger up the data in the process? The only reworking of the data you
might have to do to use it for another purpose is to strip out some of the
extraneous columns (data fields) that you don't need and perhaps removing
the header row. I'd be happy to email you a small sample exported file for
your review if you'd like.

Maybe it's something I'm doing.

If you would send that sample, I would appreciate it.

Thanks.

Later,

Tom

If you would send that sample, I would appreciate it.


On its way.

In article S4Vfd.119962$Lo6.87151@fed1read03, RG wrote:



Yeah, but Garmin does something funky with the data. I can't quite
figure it out, although to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. It has
to do with how the data is compressed - it's almost as if they strip
certain characters that are conjunctive with certain other characters
just to throw a monkey into the works.

I'm not saying that is what it is, but it acts like it.


Hmm. I'm not seeing that at all. Just pure, unadulterated ASCII text. Are
you sure you're doing a text export of the data and not a .dxf export? When
I open the exported text file into Excel, it looks just like you'd expect it
to. Waypoint names, descriptions, and coordinates all neatly arranged in
columns, represented by simple ASCII text.

I mean really, what would be the point of offering an ASCII text export of
data (sort of a baseline universal language, if you will), if you're going
to booger up the data in the process? The only reworking of the data you
might have to do to use it for another purpose is to strip out some of the
extraneous columns (data fields) that you don't need and perhaps removing
the header row. I'd be happy to email you a small sample exported file for
your review if you'd like.

I've had no problem with Garmin's data interchange format either.

--
--
Karl Denninger ) Internet Consultant & Kids Rights Activist
http://www.denninger.net My home on the net - links to everything I do!
http://scubaforum.org Your UNCENSORED place to talk about DIVING!
http://www.spamcuda.net SPAM FREE mailboxes - FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME!
http://genesis3.blogspot.com Musings Of A Sentient Mind

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 00:42:12 GMT, (Karl
Denninger) wrote:


In article S4Vfd.119962$Lo6.87151@fed1read03, RG wrote:



Yeah, but Garmin does something funky with the data. I can't quite
figure it out, although to be honest, it's not my cup of tea. It has
to do with how the data is compressed - it's almost as if they strip
certain characters that are conjunctive with certain other characters
just to throw a monkey into the works.

I'm not saying that is what it is, but it acts like it.


Hmm. I'm not seeing that at all. Just pure, unadulterated ASCII text. Are
you sure you're doing a text export of the data and not a .dxf export? When
I open the exported text file into Excel, it looks just like you'd expect it
to. Waypoint names, descriptions, and coordinates all neatly arranged in
columns, represented by simple ASCII text.

I mean really, what would be the point of offering an ASCII text export of
data (sort of a baseline universal language, if you will), if you're going
to booger up the data in the process? The only reworking of the data you
might have to do to use it for another purpose is to strip out some of the
extraneous columns (data fields) that you don't need and perhaps removing
the header row. I'd be happy to email you a small sample exported file for
your review if you'd like.

I've had no problem with Garmin's data interchange format either.

Yeah - it's something I've done I think.

I just received some data that I'll get around to playing with over
the next couple of days.

Later,

Tom