HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 14:35:18 PDT
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         Armando Guevara <esri!ufo!armando@UUNET.UU.NET>
Subject:      What is a GIS?
X-cc:         ufo!aguevara@uunet.UU.NET

April 8, 1992

Here are some thoughts on "What is a GIS"....

===========================================================================

                       What is a GIS?

Geography: To describe the earth's surface.
           A science that deals with the earth and its life.
           The description of land, sea, air, and the distribution
           of plant and animal life including man and his industries.

Information: The communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence.
             Knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction.

             Dealt with as a science, it is the collection, classification,
             storage, retrieval, and dissemination of recorded knowledge
             treated both as a pure and as an applied science.

System: A regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming
        a unified whole. A system is in or tends to equilibrium; it
        performs one or more key functions; it may be an organization
        forming a network or an organized established procedure.


(Abstracted from Webester's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1987)

So... can I say that...

GIS software is set of procedures that integrate a system, that via
geometrical, topological and query algebra foundations, allows
the input/compilation, analysis/query/integration and output/display/report
of GEOGRAPHIC data. For a software to be categorized as a GIS it must comply
with all the above.

GEOGRAPHIC data is a category of SPATIAL data, thus a GIS belongs to
the family of Spatial Information Systems (SIS). SPATIAL data is a category
of data that belongs to the generic family of MULTIMEDIA data (along with
visuals, sound and time), thus a SIS belongs to the family of MultiMedia
Information Systems (MMIS).

SPATIAL data is characterized by been able to transmit, given a pre-defined
plane of reference, locational (positional), relational and descriptive
information. The first characteristic is implicit to the datum, while the
other two are explicit or derived (e.g. topology, attributes).

It is important to distinguish beween GIS the sofware and GIS as a
methodology. GIS as a methodology is defined as the set of concepts
and procedures used to design and implement "a way" for handling
geographic data.

===========================================================================

.. or is it?

+J. Armando Guevara    Environmental Systems Research Institute  _|_|
 aguevara@esri.com     380 New York St.                          _|_|
                       Redlands, CA 92373   Fax  (714) 793-5953
                       USA                  Tel. (714) 793-2853 Ext.1208
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Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Wed, 15 Apr 1992 13:33:43 -0400
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         hoffmann@URZDFN.KARTOGRAPHIE.TU-DRESDEN.DBP.DE
Subject:      RE: NCSA Image for Macs

We are using IMAGE from NIH (developed by Wayne Rasband) on a MAC machine.
It works fine for manipulating not only the tomographic head examples but
also for airphoto manipulating. I managed also a DEM example scanned from
a "DEM-photo" with 0-255 discrete altitude values arranged in a TIFF-matrix.
I have no idea if there is a possibility for multi-band images, students
took the manual with them, so I cannot answer at this moment.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

       ******** ****** ************ ********** *** **
FRANK <hoffmann@urzdfn.kartographie.tu-dresden.dbp.de>
       ******** ****** ************ ********** *** **
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 12:48:46 +0900
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         Greenwood@CENSIS.UTAS.EDU.AU
Subject:      What is centrographic analysis?
X-To:         "Geographic Information Systems Discussion List"
              <GIS-L@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu>

Alan Fiermonte writes:
>Dear GIS-netters:
>
>Is anyone aware of any work involving centrographic analyses of tourism/
>recreation resources in large natural environments (i.e. national parks,
>forest ecosystems, biosphere reserves, etc.)????
>
>If so, contacts, publication citations, organizations/names would be greatly
>appreciated.  THX.
>
>Alan Fiermonte
>ABZX@CornellA.cit.cornell.edu

I may be the only subscriber who doesn't know what centrographic analysis
is, but I'll bare my ignorance to the list and seek enlightenment!

Might centrographic analysis be similar to piosphere development analysis,
particularly when attributed to the water/nutritional requirements of many
members of the Artiodactyla/Perisodactyla (loosely translated, the impact
of hooved grazing animals on the soil and vegetation around point water
sources, remote from their feeding range)?

My point is that GIS-L subscribers are varied in background. Could
contributors posting to the list bear this in mind and offer some form of
plain language description of specialist terminology? Not only could this
serve to broaden the
knowledge of readers, but may access information held by subscribers who
didn't know their information had a title!

Disclaimer: This does not constitute a personal affront and I'm prepared to
accept that my ignorance of this term is unusual, but do think the general
point is valid. Anyone going to bite...?!
________________________________________________
Graeme Greenwood
Centre for Spatial Information Studies (CenSIS)
University of Tasmania
GPO Box 252C
Hobart TASMANIA 7001
Australia
ph: (002) 20 2872
fax: (002) 24 0282
email: greenwood@censis.utas.edu.au
________________________________________________
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Original_To:  BITNET%"GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET"
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 09:30:00 EST
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         "William W. Baden - VAX Programmer" <BADEN@IPFWRVAX.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: More on "What is a GIS?"

The "What is a GIS?" question reminds me of the concept of "hammer theories".
A standard, everyday "hammer" is a tool that has been around for thousands of
years, yet in defining what one is can be only slightly easier than defining
a "GIS".  Is it used for ONLY driving nails? Is it used ONLY for pulling
nails?? Is it ONLY used on nails??? The answers are, of course, No on all
counts.  A "hammer" is a very useful tool, perhaps because it has many uses
by many people without actually worrying about "what" it's defined to be. Maybe
a "GIS" is just a fancy "hammer" :-).  You kinda know when you are using it
properly 'cause it works and it doesn't break.

William Baden
Indiana-Purdue Universities at Fort Wayne, IN USA
From: lgzpmm@vax.nott.ac.uk (Paul Mather)
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Subject: UK GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION HANDLING PROGRAMME
Date: 14 Apr 92 20:50:40 GMT
Reply-To: lgzpmm@vax.nott.ac.uk (Paul Mather)
Organization: University of Nottingham, UK

Two UK Research Councils (Economic and Social / Natural Envrionment,
otherwise known as ESRC and NERC, have been funding a 3-year programme
on research and applications of GIS. The programme comes to an end in '92
and on FEBRUARY 4/5 an end-of-programme conference is to be held, at which
individuals from each of the 17 projects making up the programme will
present findings/conclusions/results. Anyone wanting more details about
the programme or the conference should contact me. The conference venue
is the Royal Geographical Society, London.

Prof. P.M. Mather
Geography Dept
The University
Nottingham  NG7 2RD
UK


Tel 0602-484848 ext 3040 (int +44 602 484848 ext 3040)
Fax 0602 421676
email mather@uk.ac.nott.vax (backwards if not in UK!)


Paul Mather

Prof. Paul M. Mather
Dept of Geography
The University
Nottingham  NG7 2RD
UK

JANET: mather@uk.ac.nott.vax
From: anne@cco.caltech.edu (Anneliese Lilje)
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Subject: Re: recommendations sought: Mapping hardware
Keywords: plotters, scanners, digitizers; Suns & Macs
Date: 6 Apr 92 22:34:41 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena

In article <1992Apr6.195813.11960@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu> bmw@ldgo.columbia.edu (brian whiting) writes:
>Hello, netters & GIS-ers:
>
>First off, a disclaimer:  I am speaking for my home department
>in North Carolina, not the institution whose name may appear 
>above.
>
>We (in NC) are seeking to enhance our map-making abilities by
>purchase of a scanner, digitizer and plotter to work with our
>Suns and hopefully our Macs as well.  Software will be mainly
>PD stuff like GMT, GRASS, etc, at least for starters.  Maybe
>ARC/InFO too.  
>
>Here's the wish list:
>
>o Size 24x36", or better
>o lowish cost (have $15k at most for all)
>o color would be nice, but not absolutely needed
>o decent user friendship factor
>o access by Macs as well as Suns would also be nice
>o decent resolution (300 dots) for scanner & plotter

If you want to scan say, USGS topos or the like ... you'll need ~
500 dpi to do a good job.

Beware many "300 and 400" dpi scanners get their resolution by interpolating
lower dpi images. Bahhhh!

.

>o Postscript output for plotter (I dont know if such a beast
>  exists)
>
>Any advice would be very useful; the more specific the better 
>(i.e. models, costs, maintenance, etc.).  Please email me directly
>and I will post a summary if sufficient interest.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Brian Whiting
>Dept. of Geology
>UNC-Chapel Hill, NC
>bmw@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu
>bmw@airy.geosci.unc.edu
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Tue, 14 Apr 1992 12:57:11 LCL
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
Comments:     Warning -- original Sender: tag was LISTMAN@GRTHEUN1
From:         EACZ02YJ@GRTHEUN1.BITNET
Subject:      about programs using computer graphics.

hello to everybody in this list.well i don't reallyif this is the right list
but i'm making a try.well i always been a fun of computer graphics and i'm
always searching for new programs related with garphics,animation,design,etc..
i once owned an old version of autocad,i own now a good program for fractals
an other for geography and some other stuff.i presently own poor hardware but
despite that i haven't lost my admiration for graphics.so i'm searching for
any good graphics program available via ftp .if someone knows somethingplease
send an e-mail to me.
gregory tsakaleris
agriculture engineerer in
thessaloniki university,greece
e-mail to : eacz02yj@grtheun1.bitnet

ps.:my hardware is this:hercules 720x348card,CGA 320x200x4 card
hard disk 32mb       ,1 floppy 360k
640k of ram,processor:8088-1


thanks on behalf for any answers.  bye.
Xref: sparky comp.infosystems.gis:953 comp.graphics:5274 comp.periphs:662 sci.geo.geology:1032
From: bmw@ldgo.columbia.edu (brian whiting)
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis,comp.graphics,comp.periphs,sci.geo.geology
Subject: (Q) TRY AGAIN: info needed on plotters, scanners, tablets
Keywords: please help! repost
Date: 9 Apr 92 12:35:21 GMT
Organization: Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory

Sorry for the multiple posts, but my original request (to comp....gis)
got exactly one response and two requests to post a summary.  Please
let me know if this posting is too vague, or whatever, but I know
that this sort of knowledge is out there.  

Thanks again.

my original posting:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hello, netters & GIS-ers:

First off, a disclaimer:  I am speaking for my home department
in North Carolina, not the institution whose name may appear
above.

We (in NC) are seeking to enhance our map-making abilities by
purchase of a scanner, digitizer and plotter to work with our
Suns and hopefully our Macs as well.  Software will be mainly
PD stuff like GMT, GRASS, etc, at least for starters.  Maybe
ARC/InFO too.

Here's the wish list:

o Size 24x36", or better
o lowish cost (have $15k at most for all)
o color would be nice, but not absolutely needed
o decent user friendship factor
o access by Macs as well as Suns would also be nice
o decent resolution (300 dots) for scanner & plotter
o Postscript output for plotter (I dont know if such a beast
  exists)

Any advice would be very useful; the more specific the better
(i.e. models, costs, maintenance, etc.).  Please email me directly
and I will post a summary if sufficient interest.

Thanks in advance.

Brian Whiting
Dept. of Geology
UNC-Chapel Hill, NC
bmw@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu
bmw@airy.geosci.unc.edu
From: RA07825@SWTEXAS.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Subject: Request: PC ARC/INFO SML HELP
Date: 10 Apr 92 16:47:00 GMT
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Original_To:  BITNET%"GIS-L@UBVM"

Hello,

     I became familiar with GIS only in the past year or so and find it to
be a facinating discipline, method, tool, or what ever. I've been working
with PC ARC/INFO 3.3 for about 7 months and have encountered my first real
problem. I hope someone can help me solve it.

     I'm trying to write an SML code for a Graphic User Interface (GUI) using
the ARCPLOT module. I was successesful in developing a working menue system
but it has one small bug. After clicking on more than about 6 or 7 menue
choices, I get a "maximum number of stacked commands reached"
                 "last command ignored" message after which I can only QUIT if
it will let me, or re-boot to get out.

     Another problem I have is with the ARCPLOT module itself. I can't figure
out how to CLEAR only part of the screen. I've tried unsuccessfully to get
around this problem by using map compositions and the PLOT command. I can PLOT
into a specific part of the screen but can't CLEAR it to PLOT a new map
composition in it's place without clearing the whole screen (my click-on
buttons).

     Finally, I have a similar problem using the PLOTZOOM, MAPZOOM, and MSCALE
commands. I'm trying to zoom in only within a specified part of the graphics
screen. I suppose the solution to my second problem will help to solve my last
one.

     Has anyone had similar problems? Solutions or help would be most
appreciated.


                                                       THANKS,

                               Bobby Anaya
                         Southwest Texas State U
                     Dept. of Geography and Planning
                         BITNET%"RA07825@SWTEXAS"

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Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Mon, 13 Apr 1992 22:24:57 PDT
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         Steve Smyth <stevesmy@MICROSOFT.COM>
Subject:      Oops x 2

Never thought I'd have to make a net apology but I've managed to send
two successive notes to Darius Bartlett out over the GIS-L list by
mistake. As an excuse, I'll say that I'm using a new mailer that is
somehow attaching the listserver address without showing it to me at
the user interface. I think it picked the gis-l address up when I
extracted Darius' name into its address book last week. I've tried to
make this thing fly right but it just doesn't want to. So, while I'm
not as bad as those MDH non-delivery reports, I'm sure it's not real
exciting to get my random mail bits.  Sorry!

...steve smyth (ss4370@u.washington.edu)
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Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Fri, 10 Apr 1992 17:38:14 PDT
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         Jim Tenbrink <esri!godzilla!jimt@UUNET.UU.NET>
Subject:      Re: The "G" in GIS
X-To:         uunet!UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu!GIS-L@uunet.UU.NET

How about 'G' for geometric?

It might even be possible to define what that kind of system is supposed to
do.

Jim TenBrink
(jimt@esri.com)
standard disclaimers apply
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Fri, 17 Apr 1992 09:30:26 PDT
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         Yeong Lin <esri!formosa!lin@UUNET.UU.NET>
Subject:      Re: scatterplot program for Arc/Info
X-To:         uunet!UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu!GIS-L@uunet.UU.NET

>Some time ago I remember hearing of someone who wrote a routine
>(in AML and FORTRAN) which allowed an Arc/Info user to display a
>scatterplot of any two items (variables) in a coverage.  (Briefly,
>a fortran program extracted the desired variables from INFO and these
>were passed to an AML which displayed the scatterplot points using
>conventional ARCPLOT commands.)

As an alternative to Fortran routines, there's a [show select] function
in AML that allows you retrieve an info item value and pass it to AML
variable. The [show select] function is available in 5.x and 6.x.
You may also want to look up the [show statistics] function regarding
making scatter plots. Details of how these functions work are described
under the SHOW command in the ARCPLOT manual.


Yeong J. Lin
ylin@esri.com
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Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Fri, 17 Apr 1992 09:12:00 CDT
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         815 Terry Frye 753-9445 <A01TMF1@NIU.BITNET>
Subject:      Re: Rob Levrant's Statement of Correction

>Are you sure that GeoLink got this correction without coercion?  It sure
>sounds like some large man named Vinny was standing behind Rob as he
>typed the message, no doubt with bleeding, fingernail-less hands.
>
>The usual disclaimers should have applied here -- that Rob's opinions
>were his own, etc....  Whether Rob was "right" or not is immaterial.
>GeoLink obviously needs to improve their marketing to spread the word
>that they're alive and well.  I really doubt that whatever strong-arm
>tactics (threat of a libel suit?) they used are the right way to go
>about it.

Ok, standard disclaimer applies here.  I have never contacted or been
contacted by GeoLink and the thoughts/words here are my own and no
one elses.  My sister has been in contact with GeoLink and we have,
on occasion, discussed the company briefly.  From what she has said,
I got the impression that GeoLink was indeed expanding.  I had not
seen Rob Levrant's original posting, and was surprised when I saw
the correction.  I was also glad to see that he was attempting to
set the record straight.  There is alot of mistrust of companies
by individuals and companies are often made out to be the bad guy.
Well, I say, give the company a break.  If anyone doesn't believe
what Rob said, or think he might have been coerced into saying it,
they might consider going to the source, he gave GeoLink's address
in his Statement of Correction.

Terry Frye
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Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Thu, 16 Apr 1992 08:31:39 EDT
Reply-To:     sfreundsch@kean.ucs.mun.ca
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         sfreundsch@KEAN.UCS.MUN.CA
Subject:      Re: perspective on Geographic
X-To:         GIS-L@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu

Frans Rip writes:

>The distinction between a map and a plan is arbitrary indeed !

Well, maybe it's not...  When exploring the "lay man's" definition of
a map, it was discovered that "scale" played a role in whether a
subject called an image a map, or not.  It seems that images that are
of a "geographic scale" (relative small scale - at least as large as
1:24000) were ranked as more map-like than images at much larger
scales, which it was conjectured subjects felt were plans.  Where this
cusp in scale between maps and plans occurs is not static - meaning it
can change for each subject, depending on factors such as experience
with maps and training.  This cusp may also change from culture to
culture.

Some may feel that this type of question is "arbitrary", but others do
not.  We published a paper titled "What is a Map?" a couple of years
ago which discusses some of these issues.  For those of you who are
interested, the citation is:

Vasiliev, Freundschuh, Mark, Theisen, and Mc Avoy, 1990.  What is a
map?  THE CARTOGRAPHIC JOURNAL, vol 27, pp. 119-123.


Scott Freundschuh
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Wed, 8 Apr 1992 17:55:24 PDT
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         Armando Guevara <esri!ufo!armando@UUNET.UU.NET>
Subject:      More on "What is a GIS?"

----- Begin Included Message -----

From jay@esri.com Wed Apr  8 17:45:58 1992
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 92 17:45:59 PDT

...some comments that I thought I would pass along:

The defination of GEOGRAPHY that you provided is
an old one and is more of physical geography than
that of the whole discipline.  A more modern
defination would have dealt with aspects of
economic and behavioral geographies as well in
which MAN interacts with space, precives it
according to his information and preception
capabilities (i.e. modified by his cultural
bias) and shapes it according to his needs.

You define GEOGRAPHIC data as a category of
SPATIAL data which is in turn a category
of MULTIMEDIA data at which point time becomes
an attribute.

I guess If we take a broader defination of
geography, I fail to see the difference
between geographic and spatial data.  I think
you used geographic data to mean topographic
data in line with defination of geography
being a physical science.

Time to me is a fundamental attribute of
spatial (or geographic data).  We just do not
explicitly store it in a GIS.  That does not
mean that if the time attribute is added
to spatial data it will become multimedia
data.  (Adding a time attribute to a GIS
database is a trivial thing. Analyzing,
visualizing, storing it compactly, etc is
another matter).

Becuase most people in general hold the physical
geography defination in mind, GIS becomes
narrowly defined.  If we take a broader
definational viewpoint we can continue to
grow GIS with the incorporation of analytical
models that geographers have been developing
such as spatial statistics, spatial interaction,
etc.

Any way these were just some thoughts that came
to mind....

..it as a dialog to further enhance GIS.

Jay Sandhu


----- End Included Message -----
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