1

This isn't really a problem, I am able to use the Android tools correctly, but they always trip me up when I come back to them because they expect input with longitude first, then latitude (geo fix, and DDMS).

That's backward from the way I have always used them, and from the way every other tool/API I've used has represented them, and even from the way the Android APIs use them (GeoPoint, for example, expects latitude first, then longitude).

I am curious if there is a technical reason for this that I don't understand, or if it's easier in some context or something (some reason for it, or is it just random)?

Charlie Collins
  • 8,806
  • 4
  • 32
  • 41

1 Answers1

1

I think that PROJ.4 is one of the most widely spread libraries for coordinate transformations. Similar to Android it is also using Longitude before Latitude.

I had a problem with that when I started to use it: How to transform coordinate from WGS84 to a coordinate in a projection with PROJ.4?

So all the coordinate libraries that I have used in programming have used Longitude before Latitude, but I don't think there is any standards on this and no technical reason since it's just two values and one of them has to be first.

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Jonas
  • 121,568
  • 97
  • 310
  • 388
  • Thanks for the info, I didn't know PROJ.4 did it that way. I can't find a definitive standard. It seems like the International Maritime Organization usually uses lat/long, but other places like the International Meteor Organization (http://www.imo.net/visual/major/report/summary) always use long/lat and explain that they do so even though others use lat/long. Google Maps also uses lat/long (if you click on a point and look at "what's here"). I guess there is no convention, I've just always thought of it as lat/long. – Charlie Collins Jan 30 '11 at 14:14