What

GPX is an XML format for GPS data. Many personal GPS devices now support outputting their track logs to GPX. If you want to do something fun with the data from your GPS device, then this might be a good place to start.

Where

I'm now hosting this project on github now. Please fork if you'd like to make improvements! (The rubyforge page will remain up, but I won't be checking-in any code there.)

Why

This gem is the direct result of my work on a site I once wrote called WalkingBoss (RIP). It powered the trip creation and editing parts of the site. After talking about WalkingBoss at a few different Ruby groups and RailsConf, I was convinced that I really should release this code back to the community. After all, a large portion of the site would not exist were it not for the many other open source ruby projects I used in creating it.

How

Version 0.1 of this library relied entirely on REXML for XML parsing, which was convenient (no dependencies) but slow on large GPX files. Since version 0.2, the library relies on the libxml-ruby bindings. Instead of taking minutes to run, the unit tests now take a matter of seconds.

Who

My name is Doug Fales. I'm a software consultant in Montana. I enjoy writing software but would rather be outdoors making more GPX files on most days. If you would like to contact me about anything (bugs, patches, or freelance work), I can be reached at: doug [at] falesafeconsulting [dot] com.