Option for feet and miles?

[RsH]

Anyway, for those whose are more familiar with the imperial/statute/anglo-american system (what's the best name here?) with feet and miles: Please check the latest RouteConverter prerelease which I've just uploaded. Under Extras/Options... there is an option to modify the measurement system.

Canada is metric, and all of the travel measurements are in kilometers and meters, and speed is in KM per Hour.

The U.S. is basically still using Miles, yards and feet, although in driving yards is usually not used as a measurement... they stick to miles and feet, in the main. The only time miles is called something different in the U.S. is when they are talking about miles traveled at sea. Then they use Nautical Miles, which is a longer measurement, and which is now, by international agreement, exactly 1,852 metres (approximately 6,076 feet). The mile used when driving in the U.S. is 5,280 feet long, or 1609.344 meters. There is also a 'Survey Mile' in the U.S. which is 1609.347 meters, and was retained as otherwise all of the surveying done before 1959 would have to be amended since that was the length of the mile until the new, very slightly shorter, mile was adopted internationally.

Anyway, if the program is going to give the option of other measurements, all three of the choices should be available, for appropriate use. Call them the mile, the survey mile and the nautical mile and you can't really go wrong. The mile is used when driving, the nautical mile is used when sailing or cruising in the InterCoastal Waterway, the Great Lakes, or the seas and oceans, and the survey mile is used when measuring borders of property, or distances as surveyed pre-1959, which does continually come up, even when real estate is sold. Whether someone uses RouteConverter for these purposed depends on precisely what they are working on, but I can see the use of all three distances. The foot remains the same in all instances, as does the yard, or 3 feet, or 36 inches. The inch remains a twelfth of a foot, as well. They are all standardised in length against metric standards too, incidentally, and those values are easy to look up.

I'll check out the latest prerelease in a few days to see how those values work against the data I have from travel in the U.S. in May, June and July, and get back to you then. In that case I will use miles. I also have tracks from cruising and there nautical miles will be used. I have no reason to look at survey miles <grin>.

Hope that helps clarify what the alternatives to metric are....