Developing Geospatial Solutions using Open Source

This is one of the three books identified by the Education and Curriculum Committee that should be written. The other books are Using Open Source GIS and Developing Web Mapping Solutions Using Open Source.

Approach for writing this book

Using the application categories from http://freegis.org we'll gather problems or use cases, maybe divide them into subproblems, and describe how they can be solved using the free tools.

The tools are programming languages, libraries, command line tools, and customizable applications.

GPS related

• Problem: Share GPS data between applications
  • Subproblem: Parse GPX
  • Explanation: GPX is an XML application for GPS data. Parsing gives us the GPS data.

• Problem:
  • Subproblem: GeoTag Media
  • Explanation:

• Problem:
  • Subproblem: Track logs
  • Explanation:

• Problem: Edit a GPS track
  • example data
  • Requirements: Show the track on a map as editable lines, show the coordinates on a spreadsheet allowing edits, link the two representations
  • Subproblem: Import the GPS track to the editor
  • Subproblem: Export the track from the system

Use case	Description	Perl	Ruby	Python
Parse GPX	What is GPX?	Perl based solution	Ruby based solution	PyGPX
GeoTag Media		RDFWeb geoloc_media.pl (original geoloc_media)	Ruby?	Python?
Track logs		Geo::Track::Log	Ruby	Python

Projection-Conversion

• Problem: Convert between WGS84 and local projections
• Problem: Convert from lat+long to easting and northing, as used on printed maps

Use case	Description	Perl	Ruby	Python
Change between projections		MySociety Code		geo_helper.py
Convert from lat+long to easting+northing				geo_helper.py