One of the most time-consuming jobs in historical archaeology is the
plotting of real estate surveys. I would like to have a nickel for each of
the hours I have spent transcribing deed descriptions into plat format.
 
So whenever a new graphic program, or geographic program, has come along, I
have bought it. As a result, I have stacks of diskettes, CD ROMS, and
receipts for outlandish amounts of money paid for software that doesn't cut
it.
 
Those of us who deal with deed descriptions (east of the public-lands
states) need a program that will take a description like
 
North by northeast 158 chains
 
or
 
South 55 degrees 22 minutes east 80 perches
 
or
 
North and a little bit south about 200 perches with the meanders of the said gut
 
...or something like that, and convert it into a line on a piece of paper.
All the mapping, geographical information system, CAD, and Surfer-type
programs will allow you to draw a property boundary, but the user must
calculate the angle and distance, which obviously is what you expect a
program to do.  While I know that surveyors have such programs, the ones I
have seen are more expensive than Autocad and more complicated than we need
in our work.
 
Of course, it should run on a Macintosh.
 
 
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. |___|__\_==
. | _ |  | --]   Ned Heite,                ><DARWIN>
. =(O)-----(O)=  Camden, DE 19934           / \  / \
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