Index: trunk/psLib/src/astro/psCoord.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/psLib/src/astro/psCoord.c	(revision 40729)
+++ trunk/psLib/src/astro/psCoord.c	(revision 40806)
@@ -1300,5 +1300,10 @@
 psProjectionType psProjectTypeFromString(const char *name)
 {
-    PS_ASSERT_STRING_NON_EMPTY(name, PS_PROJ_NONE);
+
+  // let higher-level calls decide if this should be an error
+  if (!name) return PS_PROJ_NONE;
+  if (!name[0]) return PS_PROJ_NONE;
+
+  // PS_ASSERT_STRING_NON_EMPTY(name, PS_PROJ_NONE);
 
     if (!strcmp (&name[4], "-LIN")) return PS_PROJ_LIN;