Python programmers may find the application to decoding an encrypted
map
image format known as Memory Map to produce a standard PNG image file
interesting.
Someone obviously very well versed in Python and in the intricacies
of image
files has written a routine to decode originally the UK Landranger
maps, so
that they can be used with other mapping and GPS programs apart from
the
restricted Memory Map viewer.
You can get the details in this RAR archive.
http://www.mediafire.com/?3twm5xbozet
The application was obviously written with a specific job in mind,
and has
no GUI and is not very user friendly for people to use who are not
Python
experts.
One of the problems is that the original application was intended for
UK
Landranger map squares which are 20000 pixels square, and when
decoded from
Memory Map qct format to PNG format the files produced are around 50-
60
megabytes which is quite manageable as a PNG image. PNG has to be
fully
loaded into RAM to manipulate, can't be paged from disk. But with a
much
larger qct image file, to decode it into a single PNG file would
produce too
big a file for most computers to handle when a say 200Mb PNG file on
disk is
decompressed into RAM.
So it is necessary to be able to decode large qct (Memory Map Image)
files
into map squares of a manageable size.
Easy enough when you know how! Problem is the existing Python routine
starts
decoding at the top left of the qct image file, and the only control
in the
routine that I have been able to decipher is the number of pixels
along an
edge of the square that are decoded which are controlled in the code
line
extractsquare(row[2],row[1],int(row[3]),int(row[4]),20000)
near the end of the file qct2png.py
The last term 20000 sets the edge length of the decoded square.
The question is how can this routine be modified to start the
decoding at
pixel x,y, instead of at pixel 1,1 in the qct file, and to then
decode a map
square of say 20000 pixels edge length from that point, so that a qct
image
perhaps 60000 x 60000 pixels could be decoded into 9 squares of 20000
x
20000?
The original programmer has solved all of the complex problems of
decrypting
the encrypted file format and the routine works as intended, but with
a much
larger qct file than the originally intended target you are limited
to
decoding a square of about 30000 pixels edge depending on how much
RAM your
computer has to later handle the resultant PNG image file. Usually
the PNG
file needs to be further converted to a format which can be paged
from disk
such as MrSID or ozf2 which is a format used by a very popular GPS
application called OziExplorer.
Does anyone know any "Python Pirates" who could solve this?
Could you post a suggested code alteration to do this to this
newsgroup
please?
