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- WDB-II DATA DOCUMENTATION
-
- Contents:
-
- Overview
- Micro WDB-II File and Record Structures
- Field Definitions
-
-
-
-
- Overview
- ========
-
- This file documents the data structure used in WDB-II. It
- is from the original MS-DOS version by Fred Pospeschil and
- Antonio Riveria. Note that in this distribution for the
- Amiga, the data appears in a different form than the original
- in several respects:
-
- First, the original data was in Intel low order - high order
- format. For this release the data has been converted for use
- with the Motorola chip set (high order - low order).
-
- Second, individual groupings of data for coastlines, islands,
- rivers, lakes, and political boundaries as they appeared in
- the original, have been consolidated into WDB.?.ALL files
- consisting of data from all 6 groups.
-
- And lastly, the largest of the original data files did not
- contain any data points from the lesser files; the complete
- data set was only available by summing the data from each of
- five detail levels. This release differs in that the largest
- file now contains all data, including that from each of the
- lower four detail levels. Each of the lower level files is a
- subset of The Big File and, indeed, each lower level data
- file is a subset of all higher level files.
-
- _____________________________________________________________________
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
- Micro WDB-II File and Record Structures
- =======================================
-
- All Micro WDB-II files are sequential files composed of fixed length
- six byte records which can be accessed randomly. Each record is
- composed of three 16-bit signed integer fields which can be read by
- all microcomputer languages. There are no record seperators used in
- these files. The record layout is :
-
- | Code | Latitude | Longitude |
-
- In Pascal, the record definition is :
-
- POINT = RECORD
- CODE : INTEGER;
- LATITUDE : INTEGER;
- LONGITUDE : INTEGER;
- END;
-
- Within the MWDBII files the records are stored as shown below.
- In some cases there may be hundreds of points in a single line
- segment. In other cases there may be consecutive header records
- which locate individual points to be plotted.
-
- |Header|Point1|Point2|PointN|Header|Point1|Point2|PointN|Header
- |Point1|Point2|Header|Header|Header|Point1|Point2|PointN|
-
-
- The same format is used for both the line header records and
- point records. The usage of each field is as follows :
-
-
- Field Definitions
- =================
-
- CODE - Line Header Records.
-
- The CODE field is used to :
-
- 1. Identify the type of line segment which is described by
- the point records which follow it,
-
- 2. Identify the line or point within the line type, and
-
- 3. Provide the coordinates if the record describes a point.
-
- In header records the CODE field is always a positive four digit
- number in the form of : ABBB where
-
- A = BBB = CODE =
- 1 = Coast lines 001 -> 208 1001 -> 1208
- 2 = Country boundries 001 -> 301 2001 -> 2301
- 4 = State boundries 001 -> 111 4001 -> 4111
- 5 = Islands 001 -> 344 5001 -> 5344
- 6 = Lakes 001 -> 103 6001 -> 6103
- 7 = Rivers 001 -> 196 7001 -> 7196
-
-
- CODE - Point records.
-
- In point records the CODE field contains the detail level. The
- detail level is a value in the range of 1 through 5. To properly
- retrieve points at any detail level use the following comparison :
-
- IF CODE >= DESIRED_DETAIL_LEVEL THEN ...
-
-
- LATITUDE and LONGITUDE - In both header and point records.
-
- The latitude and longitude fields contain the coordinate values
- expressed in signed minutes. The values in these fields are computed
- with the formula COORD_VALUE := (Degrees * 60) + Minutes. Thus, the
- ranges of coordinate values in MWDBII are :
-
- 90 00N = 5400
- 90 00S = -5400
- 180 00E = 10800
- 180 00W = -10800
-
- MWDBII uses the standard four quadrant cartesian coordinate
- system in which north, south, east, and west are referenced to the
- equator and the Greenwich meridian.
-
- When a header record is followed by point records the coordinates in
- the header record are the beginning of the line. When a header record
- is followed by another header record then the coordinates in the
- header record should be plotted as a single point. When working at low
- levels of detail it is common to find multiple consecutive header
- records which locate isolated points. There may also be gaps between
- some of the lines.
-
- This documentation and the associated files are placed in the public
- domain and may incorporated into other products without fee so long as
- appropriate credits are included. An appropriate credit line would be
- - "This product contains/uses data and/or code placed in the public
- domain by Fred Pospeschil and Antonio Riveria. Original coordinate
- data was created by the Central Intelligence Agency."
-
- All programs were compiled with MS Pascal Version 3.20.
- Graphics support was from Flexi-Graph, New Orleans General Data
- Services, 7230 Chadbourne Drive, New Orleans, LA 70126 and Micro Doc,
- 3108 Jackson St., Bellevue, NE 68005.
-
- ALL USERS OF THESE MATERIALS ARE TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR USE AS
- THESE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED WITHOUT EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
- WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.
-
-
-
- Fred Pospeschil
- 3108 Jackson St.
- Bellevue, NE 68005
- 402-291-0795 (6-9 PM Central)
-
-