Talk:Natural Area Code

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The system is described as "a base 30 grid with 30 rows and 30 columns". It is also apparently a spherical coordinate system based on latitude and longitude, judging from the company's description on its website. I have trouble seeing how a spherical coordinate system can be a "grid" with rows and columns. It that possible? Pfly 01:54, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Very proprietary

The NAC system is heavily IP-encumbered. The company claims copyright on the rudimentary divide-by-30 algorithm and base-30 alphabet used to convert from latitude/longitude to NAC. This is unusual for such a simple and straightforward algorithm.

From the company's "Legal and Licensing" page at http://www.nacgeo.com/nacsite/licensing/:

"The Natural Area Coding System is a proprietory standard that requires licenses to use in any applications except endusers. Any uses of the Natural Area Coding System or any of its derived systems including any maps with NAC grids and any intelligent devices such as computers, GPS receivers, mail sorting equipment in either hardware or software that have the capability to input, display, retrieve, store, or process the Natural Area Coding System or any of its derived systems require licenses from NAC Geographic Products Inc."

This means that without a license, I cannot write software to convert between NAC and other systems such as latitude/longitude. transverse Mercator, or Thomas Guide coordinates (which are also protected, but represent much more original work). These terms may impose a serious limit on the claimed widespread acceptance of NAC. DerbertBeak 18:34, 9 June 2007 (UTC)