DataUsing GPSMan in graphical modeLaunching GPSManTerminology

Terminology

Here is a list of a few terms that will be used below.

Waypoints, routes, and tracks are examples of data used in GPS receivers. A waypoint (sometimes abbreviated to WP) describes a precise location through its geographic coordinates. A sequence of waypoints is called a route (RT) and is defined by the user. A track (TR, also called a trail in Lowrance receivers) is a sequence of track points (TPs) recorded by the GPS receiver over a time period and giving the positions, each with a time-stamp, of the receiver during that period, and including if possible the altitude and the depth (both in either metres or feet, depending on the existing option for this).

Route stages are the parts of a route between each two consecutive waypoints. Route stages are called edges in Graph Theory, legs in aviation, and links by Garmin. At present, GPSMan deals with three data fields for each stage: a comment, a label (that will appear in the map), and hidden information.

Polylines (LN), also called polygonal lines, are similar to tracks but have points (LPs) without time-stamps. Polylines are mainly used as background in the map window.

Track and polyline segments are subdivisions that, in the case of tracks, normally indicate that there were time gaps in which the receiver got no position information. The representation in the map of a track or polyline having different segments is a polygonal line that is interrupted between each segment (segments with a single point will hardly be visible). Segments are defined by their starting points and in the track or polyline edit window it is possible to mark or unmark each point (except the first) as being a segment starter.

Data items refer to the elements stored in the GPSMan data-base. Apart from the data items the GPS receivers use and polylines, groups (GRs) of such items can be defined and used.

Forgetting a data item means deleting it permanently from the data-base.

Input/Output operations in GPSMan have the following names (see below for the definitions of the GPSMan file formats):