Re: [gpsd-dev] [PATCH 1/4] "We call GNSS GPS" patch train

[Greg Troxel]

I think it's best to avoid intentionally misusing GPS in documentation.
It's fine to point out that this started in a world where GPS was the
primary/only GNSS, although LORAN speaking NMEA surely existed then.

While I agree that GPS is used popularly to refer to multiple
constellations, I hold that such usage is incorrect, does not aid
claity, and should not be propagated in technical documentation.

So I would change to GNSS when we mean any of the 4 systems or any
future similar system, and treat GPS as the proper name that it is,
referring the the US system, and acknowledge that in popular usage "GPS
receiver" is a device that definitely receives the US GPS signal and may
also receive other signals.    Certainly no one would call a dual-system
GLONASS/Galileo receiver a "GPS receiver", or certainly they should not.

I don't meant to suggest rototilling the code to change gps_ to gnss_.


Your 3 other patches look good.  As a nit, while refraction is better
than reflection, it's also (mainly?) about propagation speed due to
moisture in the troposphere and ionization.  So perhaps better to just
say "propagation times of the signals vary due to changing properties of
the troposphere and ionosphere"; the point of differential is that these
propagation time variances are measured and adjusted out.

That said, gpsd should avoid going down the path of explaining how
GPS/GNSS works too far.

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