[Live-demo] review of OpenLayers Overview for osgeo-live

[christopher.schmidt at nokia.com]

On Aug 1, 2010, at 8:43 AM, ext Cameron Shorter wrote:

> Chris,
> Thanks for your Openlayers Overview text.
> 
> I've reviewed and added suggested changes as below. (Feel free to revert if you disagree with my suggestions). In particular, I've tried to add a bit of a "user benefits" (why is pure JS good?).
> I've also included a Core Features section. I suspect you will want to refine this list of functionality.

Cameron,

Personally, I much preferred the previous text. 
 1. OpenLayers is, to some extent, designed for people beyond just web devleopers
    to use; though we don't always achieve that goal, the goal really is to let
    anyone, right down to someone who just knows how to copy paste into a blog,
    create an OpenLayers maps.
 2. The change from "Google Maps API" to "Google Maps" is one that I deliberately
    chose not to make: the key distinction is that the Google Maps API is 
    a Javascript API, not a web UI at maps.google.com.
 3. OpenLayers is not renowned (and definitely not renound ;)) for its 
    comprehensive testing and release cycles, as far as I know; at least, I don't
    consider it such. We most certainly do not ensure stability across 
    hundreds of browser versions; heck, we hardly ensure stability across a half
    dozen.

I also do not like the 'core features' sections in general; the core feature
of OpenLayers is "making a map", possibly extending to "Loads map layers
from many sources" -- the rest of the features are not at all core features.

It seems that you have a direction in mind here, so I'm willing to let you,
as a representative of the OpenLayers PSC, make the final call on this,
but I think the new document is missing a lot of the sense that I tried
to convey in my original, and it is not the document that I would create
myself.

-- Chris

> Source text is at:
> https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/livedvd/gisvm/trunk/doc/overview
> 
> Browser GIS Client¶
> 
> OpenLayers makes it easy for web developers to embed dynamic maps, from a multitude of sources, in any web page. OpenLayers provides an extensive list of mapping tools and widgets, similar to Google Maps. All functionally runs inside the web browser, which makes OpenLayers easy to install, without any server side dependencies.
> 
> OpenLayers is renound for its comprehensive testing and release cycles, ensuring stability across the hundreds of different browser versions.
> 
> Core Features¶
> 
> 	• Loads map layers from many sources:
> 		• Google, Bing, Yahoo
> 		• WMST, WFS, WFS-T WMS, GeoRSS, GML
> 		• ArcGIS, Images, MapGuide, MapServer, TileCache, VirtualEarth, WorldWind,
> 	• Tools
> 		• Pan, Zoom, Draw, Edit, Save, ...
> 	• Popups
> 	• Markers
> 	• Reprojections
> 
> Original Text:
> OpenLayers¶
> 
> Web map engine¶
> 
> OpenLayers makes it easy to put a dynamic map in any web page. It can display map tiles and markers loaded from any source. OpenLayers is a pure JavaScript library for displaying map data in most modern web browsers, with no server-side dependencies. OpenLayers implements a JavaScript API for building rich web-based geographic applications, similar to the Google Maps API.
> 
> 
> Furthermore, OpenLayers implements industry-standard methods for geographic data access, such as the OpenGIS Consortium’s Web Mapping Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS) protocols. Under the hood, OpenLayers is written in object-oriented JavaScript.
> 
> As a framework, OpenLayers is intended to separate map tools from map data so that all the tools can operate on all the data sources. This separation breaks the proprietary silos that earlier GIS revolutions have taught civilization to avoid. The mapping revolution on the public Web should benefit from the experience of history.
> 
> -- 
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Director
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
> 
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
> 
> http://www.lisasoft.com
> <ATT00001..txt>