note: this is the quick first draft, please feel free to refactor and add, but when adding, consider linking to other pages first, or creating a new page on this wiki

Goals

This project is intended for information about how different programming languages are used in OSG software and what's available.

A specific interest for this project is to discuss how to enhance or achieve interoperability between libraries and tools written in different languages.

I'm not sure if there should be an official committee for this (probably not), but I think this kind of project is needed as it serves for example the educational project and developers.

Audience

The contents are inteded for beginning developers who are looking for basic information and pointers, and for more seasoned developers who may not be well informed what's happening among languages they are not using.

Interoperability

Maintain functionally equivalent libraries in two languages (JTS/GEOS)
Use Swig (GDAL, GEOS)
Use .Net/mono (MapWindow)

Using Swig

How to achieve a robust mapping between memory management in low level language

and in the interface language?

C, C++, Fortran and other "low-level" languages

Many fundamental libraries are written in these languages
These can be wrapped efficiently with Swig

Java

Java is a hybrid in the sense that it's used for fundamental libraries but it is also often preferred also for its high-level features (strong OO). Notable Java OSG include JTS, uDig, ...

Scripting languages

Scripting languages take the burden of memory management and compilation and linking off from the developer.

Python

Python Cartographic Library: http://zcologia.org/cartography

Perl

Geo modules in CPAN: http://cpan.org/modules/by-module/Geo/
Cartography modules in CPAN (there's only one): http://cpan.org/modules/by-module/Cartography/
Geography modules in CPAN: http://cpan.org/modules/by-module/Geography
Tree::R module in CPAN: http://cpan.org/modules/by-module/Tree/
GDAL/OGR has Swig-based Perl interfaces
Discussion about gdal, ogr, some Geo, and Gtk2::Ex::Geo modules: http://map.hut.fi/PerlForGeoinformatics/
Geo-Perl email list: https://list.hut.fi/mailman/listinfo/geo-perl

Ruby

FreeGIS database on Ruby: http://freegis.org/database/?cat=63

Programming Languages Project

Contents