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[CZ] Plus Codes support

Jan Korenek shared this idea 7 years ago
Completed

Dobry den,


planuje sa v buducnosti podpora Plus Codes na urceni pozice?


https://plus.codes

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/74d90879-fbac-48e7-8405-28af2a0a55a7#0

Replies (6)

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Hi,

I like the idea of Plus Code Support. Why?

If I find an interesting location e. g. "Cascada de Los Tilos" on Google map I got this Plus Code:7CW4Q5QW+VJ

Now I have to go to https://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2015/08/open-location-code-plus-code-kml-converter.html copy the Code and download a kml file. Then start locus with this kml file.

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Can someone help me understand the attraction (or advantages) of services like Plus Codes and What3Words?


Both do the same thing, they convert longitude and latitude into something else. Plus Codes converts it into an alphanumeric string whereas What3Words converts it into three dictionary words (in several languages).


Example

Here is 'Cascada de Los Tilos':


28.7896531,-17.8056699

This is longitude and latitude and is not easy to remember. However, it tells me something about the location. It's 28 degrees above the equator and 17 degrees to the left of England (Prime Meridian) . :)


rink.stoat.marinas

This is What3Words and it's easy to remember. That's its sole advantage. It tells me nothing else.


7CW4Q5QW+VJ

This is Plus Codes. It's not easy to remember and it tells me nothing.

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I like Plus Codes, bacause it's shorter than LON/LAT, specially when you're in location at first 4 letters/numbers - you don't need to write down whole 11 letters, 7 is enough.

And the other thing is that LON/LAT is in many format and many maps applications take these numbers in many ways. Some needs N/S and E/W in front of numbers, some needs special characters, it's really messy. The Plus Codes, if works, works one way and perfect...

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Why is shorter important? Are you memorizing it? I normally copy/paste geographic coordinates so it makes no difference if they are 7 or 17 characters long. I can't remember the last time I wrote a coordinate by hand. I guess in that special situation, a compact coding scheme like Plus Codes would be useful (but that's not a typical use case).


I agree the formatting of LAT/LON can present a problem for some mappings apps. However, that's a function of the app's ability to interpret the data. For example, Google Maps is very good at interpreting many different LAT/LON formats. However, the simplest solution is to just use two numbers (like in the example above). There's no need for cardinal directions (N, S,W, E).


FWIW, Google Maps also works with Plus Codes (but curiously not What3Words).


I assume there's an offline algorithm to convert Plus Codes to LAT/LON. If there isn't (and requires an online connection to perform the conversion) then this feature becomes less useful to travellers in remote areas without data connections (like me).

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Many times i find some place on one phone and write Plus Code to navigation on other phone.


Yes, Google works well in interpreting coordinates, but few others, for example mapy.cz, does not.


Of course Google Maps works with Plus Codes, it's theirs coordinate solution.

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Hi guys,

I was currious how it works and seems it is, as mentioned in other posts, really just another method how to say in more easily readable way ... coordinates. What3Words system has huge advantage, that coordinates may be easily remembered. Here is it little worst, anyway still a lot better then pain coordinates (in various formats).

Found small library directly from Google ... well, added as another coordinate system into Locus Map (display coordinates in top panel, in detail of points, etc.) app after one hour. Nice, done ...

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Great, can you include, for the sake of precision, the 3rd letter after the +?

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I'll look at it ;)

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Hey,

I looked for plus codes (or OLC) support in Locus and found out that they are already supported. Great!

Would it be possible to offer it as a format for location sharing (similar to what3words) also? This way I would not have to change the coordinate system in the whole app while at the same time beeing able to quickly share locations in pluscodes format.

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Hi,

it seems that google change (or updated) the plus code library. Maps now show plus codes of example:

CF67+JM Puerto de la Cruz, Spanien

This code is not regognized by Locus! Is there a chance to implent this new version of plus codes?

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Hello Jürgen,

I've just updated app library that handles OpenCodes to the latest version, so hopefully it will work. Thanks for notification on this change.

Menion

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Hi Menion,

doesn't seem to be working in latest locus

May be you find this helpfull:

"QWF2+JC Hautala" is a short code with a locality. To convert it to a full code, you'll need to:

  1. Split it apart, into "QWF2+JC" and "Hautala";
  2. Geocode "Hautala" to a latitude and longitude using a geocoder of your choice;
  3. Recover the full code using the recover() method of the OpenLocationCode object.

An alternative is to just throw it at the (Google Geocoding API) https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geocoding/intro (you'll need to get an API key).

From stackoverflow

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Hello,

ah, finally understand. I have to say that this is quite a stupid system. App then cannot immediately convert this type of short Open location code into coordinates. I do not see any advantage here because this short version is still far away from easy remembering. Anyway, such change may require quite a big change in Locus Map system.

I have to say sorry, but additional needed work is more than benefit and usage that Open location codes bring. So it won't be fixed in the near future.

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Hi,

I totally agree with you!

But did you try to send a location from google maps to locus in the past? This is no longer possible! Neither by sharing with locus, nor by the new (fucking) format plus code.

You have to copy (share with copy/paste buffer) the address from maps, paste it into locus and then remove the URL from the copied address. Maybe locus could evaluate the URL provided by maps additionaly or simply remove it automatically?

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Yes, I see. There is now the only option: copy to clipboard. Even if Locus Map removes some part of this text, this whole process is so cumbersome.

Hmm to be true, without any direct "share button" from Google Maps, this feature is completely useless.

You personally have any big usage why use Open codes? There are alternatives like W3W or even url with coordinates is for sharing a lot better then this ...

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