Open Source GIS can only be made using either C and Java...

28 July 2006 Morten GIS

...well at least according to this "white" paper from Refractions. Quote:

Open Source GIS software can be categorized into two largely independent development tribes. [...]

  • The ‘C’ tribe, consisting of developers working on UMN Mapserver, GRASS, GDAL/OGR, OSSIM, Proj4, GEOS, PostGIS, QGIS, MapGuide OS and OpenEV. The ‘C’ tribe also includes users of scripting languages that bind easily to C libraries, such as Python, Perl and PHP.
  • The ‘Java’ tribe, consisting of developers working on GeoTools, uDig, GeoServer, JTS, JUMP, and DeeGree.

Don't get me wrong - I think the above libraries are GREAT (I use many of them daily) but I think this is a strange way of categorizing software. First of all what about the .NET "tribe" and all the other tribes out there? I can think of several great .NET/Mono based open source GIS application and libraries (MonoGIS, Appomattox, NetTopologySuite, GeoTools.NET, SharpMap and many more). Secondly these libraries aren't even fixed to a specific language, merely a framework where you decide what .NET/Mono compatible language you decide to use when linking to these libraries. Actually you can even mix languages within the same application.

It's funny to see that people still can't see .NET as a language used for Open Source applications - probably because the big bad wolf (Microsoft) invented todays fastest growing language.

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Comments (1) -

  • Diego Guidi
    It's incredible also for me that in the GIS world .NET is not considered in any way.
    In Italy all the public companies (as example municipalities) requires that all GIS works are made in java becaus "it's open source", but i think that those companies aren't read the Sun Java license... Frown
    This is also true for acedemic world.
    28 July 2006 - Reply

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