[Carto] Sample Map Rendering Input File

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

Landon Blake wrote:
> It sounds like Python is the winner.

Hehe - you're a fast mover Landon :)  Hopefully others on the list get a
chance to pipe up before the project is completed.  ;-) High five on the
enthusiasm .. wahoo!

I'd like to see a few more examples of existing APIs that model what
we're after.  Can you outline OpenJump's API for map, layer, style
objects?  The reason being that if other apps have an API modeling our
needs, then we wouldn't make a new one.

I appreciate trying to tackle the questions with Python, but think we
might get ahead of ourselves.  For example, I'd like to look at MApnik's
API/model before rolling something of your own - I'm sure we are not
trying to re-invent a rendering engine.

That said, carry on, these are good questions, but other application
frameworks have dealt with them before of course.

I'm partial to Python with GDAL/OGR, but aside from that I'd look to
MapServer or Mapnik to do the rendering.  They both have Python APIs, so
for testing you can go a lot quickly with little work.  I remember a few
people complaining about MapServer's Python bindings and API but it's
been a while since I thought about these things.