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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!ut-sally!riddle
From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle)
Newsgroups: net.rec.caves
Subject: Re: Cave Mapping Programs
Message-ID: <666@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 19-Dec-83 17:42:28 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.666
Posted: Mon Dec 19 17:42:28 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 21-Dec-83 01:14:24 EST
References: <141@milo.UUCP>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 31

You may already know about this, but a former boss of mine, Dave McKenzie,
is the author of what is reputedly the state-of-the-art cave surveying
program.  The main thing that makes it unique is Dave's algorithm for
closing loops and minimizing survey errors in three-space.  The algorithm
was the fruit of Dave's master's thesis in math.  In addition, of course,
the program has the plotting features you'd expect -- arbitrary scaling,
rotation in three-space, and also the nice ability to fake an approximate
sketch of tunnel walls given only skeletal survey data plus occasional
estimates of tunnel width.  (Does that last sentence make any sense?  My
knowledge of caving survey lingo is almost nil.)

I've been out of touch with Dave for about two years now.  When I still
worked for him, the program was written in aged and creaky fortran and ran
on the University of Texas's cybers.  Since then, Dave has started a private
consulting firm writing business software for micros and has reputedly
rewritten the program in pascal to run under CPM.

According to the Austin phone book, Dave can be reached at:

		David W. McKenzie
		8503 Shenandoah
		Austin, TX 787??
		(512)-836-8133

At last report, Dave was still an enthusiastic caver and regularly provided
computing support to the various Mexican caving projects operating out of
Texas.  He's a very helpful fellow and will probably be glad to answer your
questions.  If you write him, tell him "hi" from me.
----
Prentiss Riddle
{ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle