DIVA-GIS

Here is a website that makes it easy to get the proj4 coordinate reference system descriptions that DIVA-GIS now uses.

First find the projection you want by browsing or searching in any of the lists (EPSG, ESRI, ...). If you have selected one, click on the "Proj4" link in the gray box.

For example, click the ESRI references link. Search for "Robinson", select "World Robinson", and click on the Proj4 link to get:

+proj=robin +lon_0=0 +x_0=0 +y_0=0 +ellps=WGS84 +datum=WGS84 +units=m +no_defs

Une très heureuse initiative by Howard Butler, Christopher Schmidt, Dane Springmeyer, and Josh Livni. Thanks a lot!

I is now really easy to run DIVA-GIS on a Mac (OSX) with an Intel chip. This is because Mike Kronenberg has added DIVA to the the "predefined prefixes" in winebottler. Many thanks Mike! Also thanks to Jonathan Fresnedo for instigating this, and for showing me the result.

First download, install, and open winebottler. Then click on DIVA-GIS (under the predefined prefixes menu). That's it!

If you do not want to use the predefined prefix (or if you wanted to install a different version of then the one available in winebottler), this is how Mike set it up:
1. open WineBottler
2. select the "Create custom prefix" from the sourcelist
3. in the "Installer" section, find setup.exe

DIVA-GIS 7 has been out for about two months. It is perhaps good to explain what's different in this version compared to previous versions. The short answer is: not that much.

Most of the changes are "behind the scenes". I have replaced pieces of the software that were hard to maintain and/or install. The good news is that DIVA-GIS installs again on all recent versions of windows (including on windows Vista and on Windows7, 64 bits); and that it will be easier to develop it further in the future.

The bad news is that because I had to rewrite a lot of code, among other things all the functions that dealt with shapefiles and/or dbf files, a lot of small bugs have crept in. Thanks to a great many of you for reporting these bugs; and keep your feedback coming.

Shapefiles are the dominant file format used for spatial data (of the "vector" type: points, lines, polygons). All GIS programs can import them, and many, like DIVA-GIS, use them directly. A shapefile consists of multiple files: .shp, .shx, .dbf, and sometimes more. The attributes (data records) of the spatial features are stored in the .dbf file. That was convenient because these files could be easily edited with Microsoft Excel -- which is installed on the vast majority of windows computers. Unfortunately, in recent versions of excel (Office 2007) you can only open a .dbf file, but you can not save it. That is a real hassle for shapefile users.

DIVA does not have dbf editing. And it is a pain in programs that do (ArcMap); most people prefer the excel backdoor. Now what?

How to websites are the buzz, I have been told. Here is a "how to" that uses DIVA, to make a shapefile from a set of points with coordinates. Unfortunately without video. You can also create shapefiles for lines or polygons in DIVA, either from a text file or by drawing on the map. I have not found a how to for that yet. But there is always the manual.

It has been a while since I have been able to work on DIVA. But here we go again. A new website, and ---finally-- a version that installs on XP64 (and on Vista and on windows7 64 bits). Gone is the retro-look of the old site. Too bad, but there is a forum now, so if you have questions, they might get answered quicker than before.