[OSGeo-Discuss] Packaging an Integrated Geospatial Stack

[Shorter, Cameron]

It looks like http://pkg-grass.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGIS are already doing a good job packaging GIS
for the debian/ubuntu platform.
We should ask them to consider joining the OSGeo Foundation.

The Debian/Ubuntu GIS packaging could then be used to bootstrap a
multi-platform Distribution project.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Frank Warmerdam [mailto:warmerdam at pobox.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, 17 August 2006 12:01 PM
> To: discuss at mail.osgeo.org
> Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Packaging an Integrated Geospatial Stack
> 
> Shorter, Cameron wrote:
> > Frank,
> > Your wiki is an excellent start.
> > I think the next step is:
> 
> Cameron,
> 
> I'd add a point zero in this list which is get someone 
> involved to lead the effort (at least for a while).
> 
> > 1. Define specific user use cases for GIS software.
> > Eg: A user has a shapefile and they want to display it to 
> the public 
> > over the web using a basemap provided by someone else (eg Google).
> > Ideally, we can get some users to help define the use 
> cases, then fund 
> > the Geospatial Stack project.
> 
> I see two general user categories:
> 
>   1) desktop user, data visualization, analysis, etc.
>   2) web application developer
> 
> Given the nature of our project set, I suspect I'd target the 
> web application developer first.  But I think the goal is to 
> include as many OSGeo projects as are practical rather than 
> just target a specific user need.
> 
> > 2. Identify a set of milestones for the software stack.
> > Eg: Release 1:
> > * Postgis database
> > * Geoserver/Mapserver WMS/WFS
> > * Mapbuilder/Mapbender WMS/WFS client
> > 
> > Release 2:
> > Release 3: ...
> > 
> > 
> > 3. Identify target platform and distribution medium.
> > Eg: Ubuntu linux, get incorporated into the core Ubuntu 
> linux distribution.
> 
> I have taken the position so far that on linux we should be 
> delivering a distribution agnostic software suite rather than 
> trying to produce stuff for each distribution.  For 
> distribution "integrated" solutions, I would suggest 
> supporting existing efforts (such as the Debian GIS effort) 
> but what I invisage from OSGeo is an "all included" suite 
> that won't suffer from package dependency hell, as I've seen 
> with some many other efforts.  In this regard, I see the 
> effort being more like FGS or FWTools than like Debian GIS or 
> various efforts to provide specific RPMs for particular 
> versions of redhat/fedoracore.
> 
> On windows I would also aim for an all-included approach 
> without people having to separately download and install components.
> 
> > 4. Create a distribution project
> > I think the distribution project should be treated in a 
> similar manner 
> > to the other participating projects. It should contain email lists, 
> > bug trackers, Project Steering Committee etc.
> 
> I'd agree to a degree.  I'm not so sure it should go through 
> incubation.
> Or if it does, we can expect it to sit in incubation for 
> quite some time till it developers a community.  Actually, it 
> sitting in incubation for quite a while wouldn't be a terrible thing.
> 
> Best regards,
> -- 
> ---------------------------------------+----------------------
> ----------
> ---------------------------------------+------
> I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, 
> warmerdam at pobox.com
> light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
> and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, 
> http://osgeo.org
> 
> 
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