[H-GEN] GIS viewer wanted

[andrew laidlaw]

Hi,

One of our helpful bureaucracies has provided me a .zip archive with Geoprahical Information System (GIS) map data inside it.  There are 8 files, of different types.

2 pdfs, 1 htm and one each of type: .avl .dbf .prj .shp and .shx.

I don't want to get too involved in the intricacies of GIS software, just view and browse the map information.  The default open application seems to be GRASS?  I downloaded (3 hours) and installed an old version (5.0.3), but it seems to want to be told a lot of data (coordinate systems etc) before it will even initiate a session, whereas all I want is the equivalent of <File> <Open>.

Another application seeming relevant is Arcexplorer.  The download from their website terminated early, after 2 of 20MB, leaving the main file present, but empty.  Also, they had binary versions for suse10.0 and suse 10.2, but not for the suse 10.1 that I'm using.

My questions:

Am I missing something with the Grass script based interface - Is there a simple way to get grass 5.0.3 to open and display these files (I got nowhere with their documentation)?
Will downloading grass 6.x help?
Can Arcexplorer to the job?
If so, which version and where do I get it?
Is there a small open downloadable GIS viewer, and where can I get it?


Many thanks in advance.

regards.... andrew.

       
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