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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Rupert Essinger designed a visual GIS workflow language in 1991.
<a href="http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/Publications/Tech_Reports/91/91-6.pdf">http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/Publications/Tech_Reports/91/91-6.pdf</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Max Egenhofer designed an entire Direct manipulation UI around
Map Algebra. <a
href="http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~max/MapAlgebraSurvey.pdf">http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~max/MapAlgebraSurvey.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Both might be inspiring to someone wishing to have a formal
framework for documenting GIS workflow in a simple and intuitive way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I’m still unclear on what type of GIS data models the
original poster wants to document as Smallworld, ArcGIS, GRASS, and others all
have quite different approaches to modeling.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>If it’s OO data, etc then UML class diagrams work great
and don’t need to be heavy. In software dev there are many tools
that keep the data models in sync with the code, there is no reason why the
same thing couldn’t be created for GIS data modeling. The diagrams
could be GIS independent, with underlying drivers to read/write data models for
particular GIS packages.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>If it is a data model, then there are already tools for keeping
an Entity-Relationship Model (ERM) in sync with the data table. Geometry
is just another data type in the Simple Features view of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Craig<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Geospatial Software Architect<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><a href="http://spatialminds.com/">Spatial Minds, LLC</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Brian Russo<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, September 09, 2009 2:49 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> OSGeo Discussions<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Documenting GIS Data Models (Again): Using
DXF<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>I think it's an interesting problem to solve (Sharing gis
models/processes), but...<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>* Way too heavyweight for us, I don't have time/interest to
build & maintain sheets of DXFs manually<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>* Of little practical use for us since our processes
typically grow pretty organically with small meetings and whiteboards/stickies,
eventually we are going to stop maintaining these 'heavy' model diagrams.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>* Probably more useful for very large teams defining massive
workflows with well-defined requirements/outputs, but I don't really work on
those types of problems often (nor personally know many that really do
anymore - and they'd probably already have some dialect of UML or ERM)<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>* Can't easily convert those DXFs into GDB/DB schemas or
into the processes themselves, etc, so hence little use at the tech level<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>It might be more useful to define a simple standardized set
of symbols that handles 80% of what we do, and then for more complex processes
just lets you name it, treat them like blackboxes and just annotate them or
something.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>Personally I would just probably use simple data flow &
entity-relationship diagrams. If there was a simple system that modelled common
spatial analysis processes via symbols then I might be interested in that.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>I'm skeptical on the real world utility of
building/maintaining large sets of diagrams that A) Don't fit into the business
process generation/capture processes and B) Don't easily convert into the
actual code/schemas underlying.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>Perhaps figure out what the problem you're really trying to
solve is. I.e. What am I trying to achieve via sharing models?<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>- bri<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal>On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Landon Blake <<a
href="mailto:lblake@ksninc.com">lblake@ksninc.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<div>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I posted a
few weeks back I posted about possible ways to document and share GIS data
models. I decided to move forward with a graphical approach. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I started
building diagrams to document my GIS data model for the Public Land Survey
System in the United States. I am drawing these diagrams in a CAD program. When
I get things ironed out I hope to release the following items to the GIS
community:</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-</span><span
style='font-size:7.0pt'> </span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>My completed GIS data
model in DXF format that can be used as an example or template for other
models.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-</span><span
style='font-size:7.0pt'> </span><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>A set of CAD
“blocks” that can be used to build similar diagrams.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>If I like
how things come together with the diagrams, I might try converting the diagrams
to SVG. The diagrams would be much prettier in SVG, but I am quicker with CAD
than I am with Inkscape, and I want to get a prototype completed quickly.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>This will
make a lot more sense when you get to see the example diagrams.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>I welcome
any collaboration on this effort. If there is interest, I could move this
discussion to the Standards mailing list. It would be great to get input from
interested parties now, while the diagrams are still taking shape.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Landon</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></p>
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