[mkgmap-dev] address search problem due to required "State" value

Wed Sep 16 14:20:27 BST 2009

maning sambale wrote:
> So the address is the only problem?
>
> Update: I was able to read an MDR file in emacs.  Now how to
> understand is the next challenge :)
>
>   

Yup - understanding the MDR file is what a bunch of us are trying to do! 
See the wiki page for our accumulated wisdom(!) so far.

An MDR file can evidently have various 'options' enabled. A good game 
would be to take a genuine Garmin MDR file and remove bits. Like you 
suggested earlier, Maning, it might be possible to find how to disable 
all but one "tab" of data in the MDR file, and allow us to concentrate 
on just that. Some of the sections of the MDR file are inter-dependant, 
but the rules are not yet known. It's going to be a bit like a game of 
"Mastermind" to discover those rules! Bernhard Heibler has done a bit of 
that.

The MDR file is a binary file - I don't know much about those obsolete 
20th century text-editors like emacs, but unless it can handle raw 
binary, you're stuffed.

I write programs to explore the file format and I guess the other 
investigators do too. I work in "C", I don't know what the others do.
It would be good idea to have a repository of these explorer programs in 
source-code format for others to pick up and get off the ground more 
quickly.

Steve