Editing Geographic coordinate system (section)

==Alternative encodings==
Like any series of multiple-digit numbers, latitude-longitude pairs can be challenging to communicate and remember. Therefore, alternative schemes have been developed for encoding GCS coordinates into alphanumeric strings or words:
* the [[Maidenhead Locator System]], popular with radio operators.
* the [[World Geographic Reference System]] (GEOREF), developed for global military operations, replaced by the current [[Global Area Reference System]] (GARS).
* [[Open Location Code]] or "Plus Codes", developed by Google and released into the public domain.
* [[Geohash]], a public domain system based on the Morton [[Z-order curve]].
* [[Mapcode]], an open-source system originally developed at TomTom.
* [[What3words]], a proprietary system that encodes GCS coordinates as pseudorandom sets of words by dividing the coordinates into three numbers and looking up words in an indexed dictionary.

These are not distinct coordinate systems, only alternative methods for expressing latitude and longitude measurements.