----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Our systems internally process east longitude and north latitude as postive numbers, while south and west are negative numbers. Conventional hemisphere designations are generated for display to the human user. A GIS viewer like ArcView expects to see coordinates in this +/- convention when importing data. This convention appears to be based on the standard cartesian coordinate system. Ed Taylor GEOname Products, GDE Systems, Inc., Home Page: http://www.gdesystems.com GEOname Page: http://www.gdesystems.com/IIS/SlipSheets/GEONAME.html On Fri, 3 Nov 1995, Gilley, Charles wrote: > ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- > > This poor s/w engineer has a trivia question. If I'm at the > prime meridian and begin travelling East, is that positive longitude? > > Whether positive or negative, can anyone provide a brief history on the > convention? > > Charles Gilley > AEL/Cross Systems >