[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [Live-demo] Has anyone written a "How do you XXX with Open Source GIS?"

[Cameron Shorter]

Stephen,
There are 2 Open Source GIS comparison tables that I'm aware of, and 
linked from our Case Studies wiki:

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Case_Studies#Web_Client_Comparison
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Case_Studies#Review_of_Open_Source_Desktop_Clients

If people know of other comparisons, please link to them from this wiki.

On 03/02/11 01:15, Stephen Woodbridge wrote:
> On 2/2/2011 5:14 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>> Below, Frank has done a great job asking the exact sort of question that
>> new GIS users ask, and which we as an OSGeo community should address to
>> attract new users.
>
> I think that it would be helpful to identify gaps also, for two reasons:
>
> 1. if someone is planning to migrate from say ArcMap to OSS, know the 
> pain points and gaps will make it easy fro them to decide if their use 
> case makes sense of not to convert now or not. Knowing what to expect 
> up front lets them plan better and design new processes to work around 
> those issues.
>
> 2. if we as a community have a clear idea of the gaps and pain points 
> then it gives us a check list if high value projects that we might 
> want to work into our projects. While I suspect most projects maintain 
> some kind of wish list, I do not think there is a high level document 
> like this FAQ that covers this. Maybe it is as simple as creating 
> additional entries like "How to you XXX with Open Source GIS?" which 
> identify gaps and pain points also.
>
> I think we are all about transparency, and this would help, IMHO.
>
> ATB,
>   -Steve W
>
>> What has been done so far toward building a FAQ on "How to you XXX with
>> Open Source GIS?"?
>>
>> Frank wrote:
>>> Not only am I new to the forum, but
>>> I'm new to GIS work in general.
>>>
>>> I downloaded the Live CD and installed it on a virtual machine and it's
>>> working great. I'm trying to build a suite of GIS tools I can for the
>>> various
>>> tasks I have to do at work and it's great having so many products right
>>> in front of me. It's highly quality work and I appreciate all the hard
>>> work to pull it together.
>>>
>>> What would be really helpful to me (and possibly other new-to-GIS folks
>>> like myself) is a FAQ-type list of questions with app answers. For
>>> example:
>>>
>>>
>>> Do you want to edit shapefiles? Try xxx, yyy, zzz.
>>> Do you want to style shapefiles? Try ...
>>> Do you want to work exclusively with raster files?
>>> Do you need to work simultaneously with raster and vector files?
>>> Do you want to convert one file into one another format?
>>> Do you want to convert raster to vector?
>>> Vector to raster?
>>> Vector to another vector?
>>>
>>> etc.
>>>
>>> If there were a couple dozen questions with short answers it would 
>>> really
>>> supplement the disc quite well.
>>>
>>> For instance, I'm trying to figure out how to convert a raster (binary
>>> GRID) file into a shapefile. I dink around in the various programs 
>>> on the
>>> CD, but I don't know if I just can't find the "convert raster to 
>>> vector"
>>> option in a particular app or if it isn't there at all. A short little
>>> Q&A text file would be nice to help at least focus my initial search
>>> a little bit better. At the least I (hopefully) would be pointed to the
>>> best choices for my purpose.
>>>
>>>
>>> Hope this makes sense!
>>>
>>> Frank
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Live-demo mailing list
>>> Live-demo at lists.osgeo.org
>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/live-demo
>>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Disc
>>
>>
>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
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