Jesse and Company,  
   
I've done a bit more investigation on my problem with the GeoTiff file and  
what I've found is relevant to some of my earlier comments. I think  
that the explanation that follows might have some use in furture uDig  
work.  
   
It turns out that the file file I was trying to read  
is a correctly implemented GeoTiff but that it is  
in a projection that is not currently supported by GeoTools.  Working  
in my own application (not uDig) I create a GeoTiffReader and attempt  
to read the file. The reader promptly throws an exception indicating  
that ProjCoordTransGeoKey(8) is not currently supported."  
Searching the GeoTools archives I see that this is a known bug  
dating from 2005, number GEOT-671, which reports that   
certain frequently used projections are not supported, most  
notably the Lambert Conic Conformal that was used for  
the subject GeoTiff (later on, I'm going to go over to  
the GeoTools mailing list to ask how to go about implementing  
the projection... so expect more whining on my part).  
   
Anyway, I feel that if uDig had a mechanism for reporting this  
fact when I was first trying to load up the file, I would have  
understood the program much more quickly and with a lot  
less digging. And this represents a general pattern of   
implementation decisions in uDig that I think could be improved.  
Simply put, the program is uncommunicative.  It knows what  
it's doing, but doesn't share that knowledge with the users. You,  
the uDig developers, have access to knowledge and insights  
(and also, non-uDig tools) that are not available to ordinary  
users or even applications developers like myself.  So perhaps  
it doesn't seem like a very pressing development requirement  
when writing code. But I encourage you to at least consider  
if this issue doesn't merit a higher priority in your approach.  
   
Again, I wish uDig the best of success and make these   
suggestions not just to kvetch, but because I think it is  
a necessary element to obtaining that success I hope  
the application will achieve.  
   
Gary  
 


---
Gary W. Lucas, Senior Software Engineer
Sonalysts, Inc
215 Parkway North
Waterford, CT 06320
(860) 326-3682
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User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
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