----------------------------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
>