How do I convert coordinates to a Latitude & Longitude?

Question

I am reverse engineering a transportation visualization app. I need to find out the latitude for the origin of their data feed. Specifically what XY 0,0 is. The only formula

Answer 1

You've got good advice on coordinate systems already, so I'll just chime in with the library I've used with great success in the past.

Geotrans is approved for use by the US Department of Defence, so you can be sure that it is well tested. You can grab it from here:

http://earth-info.nga.mil/GandG/geotrans/index.html

That might not be the right link as that page talks about the application, not the library. I expect the library is in the Developers package. Licensing terms were very liberal from memory, but make sure you review the terms before using it commercially.

Edit:

An interesting discussion on Geotrans licensing can be found here:

http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-legal@lists.debian.org/msg39263.html