[California] Getting Started With More Than Conferences

Fri Nov 6 17:21:42 EST 2009

 Ragi wrote: "I want to learn Python. My Python sucks. It takes me 10 times to code something, but it is simply because I suck."

I'm no great Pythonista either. In fact, I try to program Python like I do Java, which doesn't work very well. So we'd both like to know Python better.

Ragi wrote: "That would have to probably be a C project since we need to deal with memory arrays. However, there is Python support for ffmpeg libraries. http://code.google.com/p/pyffmpeg/
Adding georeferencing information is what we would need to think about. Video processing is not my area of expertise at all... but to me, that is the point of doing projects (to learn something)."

Looks like ffmpeg is well supported, although the Python version doesn't seem to be active. I wouldn't mind working with either library. Might be better to use C, since our knowledge of Python would have to be pretty good if we were going to support the ffmpeg bindings for Python.
I know some basic photogrammetry, which would be useful for georeferrencing video, which I imagine requires some application of photogrammetry to individual video frames.

Ragi wrote: "In fact, if we do a project that is iPhone related, I would have more time to work on it, since it would directly relate to what I am doing lately. However, I am aware that if you do not have (or want) an iPhone or a Mac, it doesn't make sense for you. This would be #1 on my interest list (for iPhone). If this interests you, I would be willing to get a hold of a mac mini for you."

Sigh...I don't have an IPhone or a Mac. Can you write IPhone apps in Java? If so, we could work on a library that abstracted the geo-functions of mobile devices like the Bug and the IPhone behind a universal API. That would be a challenging project. "GeoVM for mobile devices".

Ragi wrote: "I only listed this because I maintained and extended the Versioning code for ESRI for 9.2 and 9.3, so I have an idea of how it works :)"

I don't get real excited about PostGIS, but working with the program is an important skill for anyone wanting to make money in the open source GIS world. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt me to learn more about it. OpenJUMPers would love better PostGIS support and I'm sure the PostGIS folks would love versioning. I'm acquainted with some of the folks at Refractions Research that work on PostGIS, so that is a plus.

Landon
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________________________________________
From: rburhum at gmail.com [mailto:rburhum at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Ragi Y. Burhum
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 11:58 AM
To: Landon Blake
Subject: Re: [California] Getting Started With More Than Conferences

On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 10:49 AM, Landon Blake <lblake at ksninc.com> wrote:
Ragi,

You wrote: "Landon, this is something that I have been thinking about myself and I have mentioned it to a few people. I am interested :)"
Cool.

You wrote: "Your forgot C++. That is my primary language of choice, however I can probably crank some code in any of the other languages except Ruby. However, I do not ever mind learning a new language."

I am very scared of C++. I'd like to learn it, but only because I want to be able to customize Inkscape one of these days. Still scared of it though.

Hey, if there is any C++, I can look it over. I have been writing in C++ for 14 years and now I should probably stay away from it to learn something new.

You wrote: "When I code on my free time, I mostly do it for fun and to experiment with a new technology. The result is usually that what I end up with something that I like a lot, but is not terribly useful."

I find I have the same problem. :]

You wrote: "Whatever we write, I would rather make it cross platform and able to code in a *nix platform, which makes any of the Dot Net languages not a great choice :)"

Agreed. That leaves us with Java, C, Python and maybe C++ or Ruby. We should see if there are other programmers among us that want to help, and if any of these languages will work for them. It makes sense to pick a language that has the most support among our members and has good library support for the project we tackle.

I want to learn Python. My Python sucks. It takes me 10 times to code something, but it is simply because I suck.

You wrote: "Some things that I have discussed with other people in the past..."

You mentioned three (3) project ideas that intrigued me:

(1) Georeferenced video processing: I've always been curious about vide processing in general, and think video could be a great tool for GIS data collection. I'm sure video processing is not a simple topic, and I don't know how support for video processing is among the different programming languages.

That would have to probably be a C project since we need to deal with memory arrays. However, there is Python support for ffmpeg libraries. http://code.google.com/p/pyffmpeg/
Adding georeferencing information is what we would need to think about. Video processing is not my area of expertise at all... but to me, that is the point of doing projects (to learn something).

(2) GIS Support for Mobile Devices: It would be cool if we could get something to run on the Bug Labs device (http://www.buglabs.net/). The hardware has a GPS module and a camera module. I'm not sure how good the GPS positioning is, but it would be really cool to get open source GIS software running on an open hardware platform.  Does present the problem of having to buy a unit for testing, although they do have an emulator. An advantage is that the access to the operating system and all the module hardware is done in Java, and they've got some software development stuff set-up in Eclipse.

My take on a open hardware platform is expressed by one of Matt Asay's latest essays http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10385156-16.html

Nevertheless, I am biased about this topic since I have been playing with the iPhone and want to release a few iPhone apps myself. There are a few projects I have been following on this end:

- Route-Me: An iPhone slippy map. code.google.com/p/route-me/
- ARKit: An augmented reality iPhone library. http://www.iphonear.org/

In fact, if we do a project that is iPhone related, I would have more time to work on it, since it would directly relate to what I am doing lately. However, I am aware that if you do not have (or want) an iPhone or a Mac, it doesn't make sense for you. This would be #1 on my interest list (for iPhone). If this interests you, I would be willing to get a hold of a mac mini for you.

(3) Versioning for PostGIS: I'm not a great C programmer, but I know relational databases. I've even messed around with PostGIS a bit. This would give me a good reason to learn some more C and to write a decent PostGIS plug-in for OpenJUMP.

I only listed this because I maintained and extended the Versioning code for ESRI for 9.2 and 9.3, so I have an idea of how it works :) 

- Ragi

Landon
________________________________________
From: california-bounces at lists.osgeo.org [mailto:california-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Ragi Y. Burhum
Sent: Friday, November 06, 2009 10:30 AM
To: california at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [California] Getting Started With More Than Conferences

Landon, this is something that I have been thinking about myself and I have mentioned it to a few people. I am interested :)
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 10:53:51 -0800
From: "Landon Blake" <lblake at ksninc.com>
Subject: [California] Getting Started With More Than Conferences
To: <california at lists.osgeo.org>
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The second thing I would like to explore is getting a group of chapter
members with programming skills together to work on a small open
source project. I'm not looking for a huge commitment here. I think a
handful of us could accomplish a great deal with just a couple of
hours a month. I imagine we will need to organize our programmers
around a common programming language. Java is the language that I am
the most skilled in, but I can code in Ruby, Python, C#, VB Dot Net,
and as a last resort, C. I can certainly participate in a project with
one of these other languages if I have another chapter member that can
look over my code.

Do we have any programmers that can code in any of the above
programming languages that would be interested in working together on
a California Chapter project? Which language do you prefer?

Your forgot C++. That is my primary language of choice, however I can probably crank some code in any of the other languages except Ruby. However, I do not ever mind learning a new language.

Whatever we write, I would rather make it cross platform and able to code in a *nix platform, which makes any of the Dot Net languages not a great choice :) (sorry, no mono for me)

We could select an existing OSGeo project that needs help, and tackle
one of their main issues. Or, we could work on a new tool. I think we
will be most successful if we keep our project's goals modest and
simple.

Totally agree.

I've always been interested in the following areas:

- Metadata management.
- Working with time in GIS.
- Cartographic map production.

Is there a particular tool you've been wanting to build or a problem
you've been wanting to solve? Is there an OSGEo project on the brink of
extinction that could
use some new life blood?

When I code on my free time, I mostly do it for fun and to experiment with a new technology. The result is usually that what I end up with something that I like a lot, but is not terribly useful.

Some things that I have discussed with other people in the past:

More Fun (that would probably require fun learning from myself):
- Leveraging OpenCL (http://www.macresearch.org/files/opencl/Episode_1.mov) or CUDA in GDAL or some other library (I am extremely interested on this topic) or even for cartographic output
- Georeferenced video processing.
- GIS support for Mobile devices (mainly iPhone).

 Useful(?):
- A versioning (ESRI's sense of versioning) alternative for PostGIS.
- Creating an ***easy to use*** Geoprocessing Web Service for developers and put it in AppEngine or somewhere else where anyone that wants to do buffering or intersections or any of the standard GIS functions that we take for granted can do so. Brinding geoprocessing to the masses :)
Let me know if you are interested in helping with either of these
activities. I'm not sure how much support we have for these, but I'm
willing to coordinate and put together some teams if there is
interest.

I am interested

- Ragi

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