Info on GIS

Hi,

I have been looking for answers to these questions for days. I would
like to know what is the difference between GIS and GPS Maps. Also how
can i convert a shapefile to GPS Map, so that i can plot lat,lon data
on the Map just like we do using Google Maps. I asked 'navteq' about
their maps and this is what they had to say, 'We only provide raw map
data. For example, Google is our customer and they use their software
to compile our data as what you see in Google Map. How they do it, I
got no idea. Without any software compilation, the map is just raw
data format.' Any help will be highly appretiated.

Thanks
Bharath

On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 03:14:00 -0700 (PDT), bharath_r



GIS is a Geographic Information SYSTEM. A GIS contains data, which may
include maps, and uses these data to answer questions such as "Where
are A and B both true", "Is A near B" and many other spatial queries.
The output from a GIS, while often including maps, is equally often a
table, a diagram or a report - it could be as straightfoward as a
single number - for example, "How many children live within 3 miles of
this school?". Software such as PostGIS (an extension to Postgresql)
can provide comprehensive GIS capability without any on-screen display
of maps at all.

A GPS Map and systems like Google Maps is not a GIS. It is a map
display system, and in general does not provide a full spatial query
system. A GPS Map may be a component of a GIS; the map data may be
incorporated in a GIS, but it is not intrinsically a GIS.

HTH

Paul

On Tue, 8 Apr 2008 03:14:00 -0700 (PDT), bharath_r


Take a look at the free download program GPSMAPEDIT to see how you can
turn shape files into maps that can be edited, expanded, and loaded
into a Garmin GPS.

bharath_r wrote:

After you read this article you will know what GIS stands for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system

I've never heard about "GPS Maps" term but Google Maps or maps in GPS
units like in Garmin, etc. So, as such, GPS maps are just maps displayed
with software installed on GPS unit or PDA device.


What the "GPS Map" stands for here?
If it is Google Maps, then you can use ogr2ogr
(http://gdal.org/ogr/ogr2ogr.html ) tool from the GDAL/OGR package
(http://gdal.org/ogr/ ). See example command:

http://gdal.org/ogr/drv_kml.html


We still have no idea what is "the Map".
If you are asking for Google Maps, then refer to Google Maps help
and the Google Maps API manual. Also, Don't forget

http://www.google.com/search?q=shapefile%20google%20maps

If you are asking about maps rendering, check

http://mapserver.osgeo.org/
http://mapnik.org/

Greetings
--
Mateusz Loskot
http://mateusz.loskot.net

Thanks a lot for all the replies.

Yes, the GPS maps i was talking about is Google Maps. What i wanted to
know is that, is it possible for me to develop something like
GoogleMaps application, by getting raw data in shapefile format and
compiling it? I came across a software that says it can convert raw
shapefile data to Maps (www.everlymap.com) . Let me give a brief of
what i intend to do. I work for a software company and we intend to
enter into the GPS space. But before anything we need to understand
something about GPS, how it works etc. So we started off with
developing a simple Passive GPS tracking application where the user
travels with a handheld GPS (a GPS device with inbuilt memory), and at
the end of the trip, we can connect the GPS to the PC and get the
route the person travelled. To plot the route travelled, we need maps.
Initially we looked at Google Maps, which comes with API and this can
be easily done using Google Maps. But the thing is Google Maps are not
free to use in Enterprise Applications. So i started looking at some
alternative. Thats when i came across 'Navteq' and asked them about
the maps, and they said ''We only provide raw map data. For example,
Google is our customer and they use their software to compile our data
as what you see in Google Map. How they do it, I got no idea. Without
any software compilation, the map is just raw data format.' So i was a
little confused, which made me ask the above question. I hope i have
made my ideas clear.

Regards
Bharath