NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/comp/infosyst/gis/4556

Text File | 1992-12-22 | 1.9 KB | 43 lines

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Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!dmarble
From: [e-mail] (Duane F Marble)
Subject: Two Articles in BYTE
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Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 03:42:37 GMT
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The current (January 1993) issue of BYTE magazine contains two
articles of some interest. The first

Smith, Ben and Howard Eglowstein. "Putting Your Data on the Map"

briefly reviews five "mapping products" including: ARC/INFO 3.4D,
Atlas GIS 2.0, MapInfo 2.0 for Windows, Tactician 2.0, and GeoQuery
3.0. As usual, the authors are unaware of the difference between a
GIS and a mapping program. As a result they are puzzled by the
seeming complexity of ARC/INFO (where they note that the Overlay
module "controls the interaction among multiple pieces of data").
Also, as usual, they fail to provide any useful comments on the
quality of the cartographic displays produced. The one created on
Atlas GIS is a particularly ugly specimen (white water, orange and
green land areas with orange and green symbols and a purple screen
background) which would require anyone who passed Introductory
Cartography to reach for the bottle.

The second, by Jean Renard Ward and Debra Schultz in their "Under
the Hood" column, deals with what they call "Digitizer Renaissance"
and explores the way in which digitizer technology is developing
under the development pressure of pen-based computing where the
display and the digitizer must be integrated. Some nice technical
graphics.

--
Duane F. Marble                   E-mail: [e-mail]
Department of Geography                Telephone: [phone]
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio 43210                   Fax: [phone]