[geos-devel] Looking for a geometry engine

[Sean Gillies]

hunniger wrote:
> Hello,
> my name is Dirk, I studied physics, and work for a mechanical
> engineering company.
> In my free time I like to write software, and most of all I like Python.
> We often model machines as two dimensional objects with nodes, some of
> which are free, some of which are (partially) fixed that are connected
> by lines. We model the movement of a machines by changing the length of
> a line, cause some free nodes to move. Currently I am getting paid for
> calculating these movements by hand. Since I don't like my work I would
> like write a software to do it instead of me and publish it open source.
> So is geos able to solve this kind of problems and would this be a good
> point for me to start with?
> Yours Dirk
> 
> PS: I just want to give a short example of a problem I would like to solve.
> 
> Let there be a point A at (0,0) , and let there be an other point B
> (0,1) , there shall be a further point C, that has a distance of 1 from
> A as well as from B. What are the coordinates of C. (Well Ok there are
> two solutions). And what is the trajectory on which C moves if the
> distance between A and C increases from 1 to 2. And all other distances
> stay the same.
> 

Sounds like what you need is matlab-ish software. GEOS is geared towards
answering questions like "do landscape patches A and B intersect, and if
so, what is their intersection patch(es)?" and isn't ideal for solving
algebra problems.

Cheers,
Sean