[Carto] Students: Get Paid to work on this project (isthis still the thread about high resolution printing??)

[Bob Basques]

All, 

Well, basically, I've always thought along the lines of a Web app (engine) for the processing.  I'm a bit biased in this regard, but it shouldn't preclude building out a standalone version of some sort of engine either. 

Anyway on to the ideas. 

My thought was to use a print canvas sort of approach, where an online interface was used to assemble a print layout (could this be the specification side of the conversation so far) and send that to the engine for printing.  The reason I think  this user interface is important is more for the sales side of things, but I'm a big proponent of usability, and push/drag system on a web based whiteborad sort of interface seems like the right way to go. 

Using a URL based (raster images would be a good start) approach to collecting print elements seems like a no brainer, where a separate web based engine could handle URL collection duties for display in the Print canvas, and the user has all the tools needed in the interface to push, drag, scale, etc, and in a visual form.  Using the Print Canvas approarch will allow for a very strict method of pushing the elements to the rendering engine as well.  It will act as a sort of pre-rendering filter of sorts. 

It may sound like I'm trying to jump to the end before doing the middle, but I've been thinking about this a for a few years and even did some early concept work once upon a time. 

The bigger benefit I see to this approach (and still keeping inside of the ideas discussed) is that things can be implemented in phases, raster first, vector (3D??), and the input and rendering are completely separated with regard to development streams.  If a project want to use the print canvas engine to render directly, they can, or let the users interact with the layout instead, either will work just fine. 

I don't believe that this things need to get hung up on the specification side too much either, most elements would/could be collected via a URL resource for example, and already be in some sort of standard form.   The new stuff for layout, can be integrated into this new print canvas / render engine and stay project specific, right? 

So, am I rambling, or does any of this make sense? 

bobb 




>>> "Landon Blake" <lblake at ksninc.com> wrote:

I shared my ideas Bob. Let's hear about your approach.

Landon
Office Phone Number: (209) 946-0268
Cell Phone Number: (209) 992-0658


________________________________________
From: carto-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:carto-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Bob Basques
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 11:24 AM
To: Dane Springmeyer; Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)
Cc: carto at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [Carto] Students: Get Paid to work on this project (isthis still the thread about high resolution printing??)

All,

Is this still the thread about high resolution printing?

If so, I have a different approach that might be worth offering. . . .

bobb



>>> "Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)" <tmitchell at osgeo.org> wrote:
Dane Springmeyer wrote:
> Because there is not a third student focusing on the OSGEO side I think
> was is not being addressed is the interoperability/standards
> specification piece. Big picture this is likely better addressed outside
> of a code-based GSOC project and rather by the wider community.

I think you're hitting the nail on the head here.  With my "user of
several apps" hat on, I mainly care about the specifications side of
things.  Knowing that any "engine" app is already going to be focused on
improving quality, features, etc. the question from a larger, OSGeo
ecosystem perspective does really fall into the standards doesn't it?

What I would like to avoid is inventing a new spec, only to find that
another app already has a well thought out model in place.  I'd much
rather clone an existing model, API, whatever and then see what is
missing from our overall needs.  I'm most familiar with MapServer's
model, but was able to get a good glimpse into Mapnik when playing with
Quantumnik.  That kind of interoperability in a client app is quite
encouraging to see.

In the end, I'd like to take Application X and transform its config
files into the engine's model.  Thereby making this project also a bit
of a universal translator.. but I think I'm getting ahead of myself. :)

So, how do we get a good handle on potential specs to work from?  I
broke it down into three components:
* rendering stuff
* map layout details
* output formats/resolution etc.


Tyler
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