[SGVLUG] Distance between two locations

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

> -----Original Message----- Of Peter Fogg
> 
> The site that I am developing requires the ability to calculate the 
> distance between to locations. 

Is this for distance "as the crow flies", or what it would actually take
to "drive" from point A to point B?

Straight-line distance is a simple formula [potentially made more
difficult by converting polar coordinates into cartesian].  Would
relative altitudes between the two locations be part of the problem?
(for example, the distance from one side to the other of a cliff might
be only 10 feet horizontally, but a couple thousand in the vertical
direction... ;) )

"driving distance" would have to take into account one-way roads,
construction/blockages, traffic patterns (if you're trying to determine
"fastest" route, which will not be the "shortest" if traffic comes to a
standstill on the short route...)  This type of problem would indeed
have to have database of some sort for location of intersections,
blockages/one-way, etc.