https://github.com/joemcmahon/acme-geo-whitwell-name

Steadman Whitwell's "rational geographic nomenclature"
https://github.com/joemcmahon/acme-geo-whitwell-name

Last synced: 11 days ago
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Steadman Whitwell's "rational geographic nomenclature"

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/joemcmahon/acme-geo-whitwell-name
• Owner: joemcmahon
• Created: 2009-03-12T01:38:52.000Z (almost 16 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2015-09-03T20:03:27.000Z (over 9 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-10-28T15:48:21.846Z (about 2 months ago)
• Language: Perl
• Homepage: http://search.cpan.org/~mcmahon/Acme-Geo-Whitwell-Name-0.02/
• Size: 114 KB
• Stars: 2
• Watchers: 4
• Forks: 2
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README
  • Changelog: Changes

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README

        
Acme-Geo-Whitwell-Name

This module allows you to convert latitudes and longitudes to Steadman

Whitwell's "rational geographic nomeclature": unique place names that

are generated directly from the latitude and longitude.[1] Whitwell

despaired of the many duplicate Springfields and Washingtons in the

United States, and proposed this nomenclature to prevent duplicate

placenames.

The system is set up to use latitudes and longitudes precise to two

decimal places; using standard maximum measurements for latitude and

longitude[2], this allows a grid of approximately 800 feet by 1300 feet

to be overlaid on the globe. Most towns and villages are at least this big,

so 2-decimal precision is sufficient to give each one a unique name.

The latitude and longitude are converted (using a scheme devised by Whitwell)

into pronounceable words - more or less. The names have internal hints to

tell the reader (traveller?) in which hemisphere the places are located: if

the latitude word contains an "S", the latitude is a south latitude; if the

longitude word contains a "V", the longitude is a west longitude. Absence

of either implies the opposite: north latitude, or east longitude[3].

Allowing for the utter lunacy of the whole scheme, it has a certain

obsessive charm. (It is interesting to note that this actually is

addressed by postal codes nowadays; having people add an extra thing to a

name is easier to do than have them change every place name.)

This module is at its core a simple text transformation, so it requires very

little beyond core Perl functions. It does not at present do geocoding, so

you will have to determine the latitude and longitude yourself.

[1] New Harmony Gazette, Vol. I, pp. 226-227.

[2] http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/warmup/aquifer/html/distance.html

[3] The New Harmony Communities, George Browning Lockwood, The Chronicle Company, 1902.

    (Available at https://archive.org/details/newharmonycommu00inlock.)L

INSTALLATION

To install this module, run the following commands:

	perl Makefile.PL

	make

	make test

	make install

SUPPORT AND DOCUMENTATION

After installing, you can find documentation for this module with the

perldoc command.

    perldoc Acme::Geo::Whitwell::Name

You can also look for information at:

    RT, CPAN's request tracker

        http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Acme-Geo-Whitwell-Name

    AnnoCPAN, Annotated CPAN documentation

        http://annocpan.org/dist/Acme-Geo-Whitwell-Name

    CPAN Ratings

        http://cpanratings.perl.org/d/Acme-Geo-Whitwell-Name

    Search CPAN

        http://search.cpan.org/dist/Acme-Geo-Whitwell-Name

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (C) 2008 Joe McMahon

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it

under the same terms as Perl itself.