[OSM-newbies] Interpolating a point

[David ``Smith'']

On Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 10:36 PM, Chris Hunter <chunter952 at gmail.com> wrote:
> If someone does feel like coding up an intersection/resection surveying
> plugin for JOSM, it looks like many of the calculations involve Vicenty's
> Formula.

Wow that's complicated.  Sure, that's the way to go if you need
millimeter precision.  I actually had in mind some much simpler
methods with a flat earth approximation and a relatively simple
cylindrical projection.  On smaller scales (distances on the order of
one mile) the precision should be pretty good, like less than 1%
error.  You'd introduce greater errors than that just in the process
of taking magnetic compass readings.

Really, why would you need better precision than that?  If you can't
get close to a feature for whatever reason, that probably means there
are no other mapped or mappable features very close to it.  If a dot
on the map is off by 50 feet, but there's no other feature on the map
for a mile around, is there really a problem?  You could use
professional surveying equipment and complicated algorithms to bet
better precision, but in the context of OpenStreetMap, I don't think
it's worth the trouble.

Oh, and I really don't mean to discourage anyone.  If someone actually
goes to the trouble, I'll be impressed.

-- 
David "Smith"
a.k.a. Vid the Kid
a.k.a. Bír'd'in

Does this font make me look fat?