[mapserver-dev] Why do people Open Source?

[Jan Hartmann]

  Here's an interesting video on the subject of Paul's KeyNote about 
money and Open Source:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/jan-june10/makingsense_04-15.html

Jan

On 07/08/10 10:48, Jan Hartmann wrote:
> On 07/07/10 21:29, Paul Ramsey wrote:
>> http://s3.cleverelephant.ca/geoweb-mapserver.pdf
>
> Also very much worth looking at is Paul's Key Note talk at OsGeo 2009, 
> about the place of open Source software in the general programming world
>
> http://2009.foss4g.org/speakers/#Paul_Ramsey
>
> It is about conceptual systems, developed in open Source software 
> outside the market, and dedicated services, developed for mony for 
> specific people and purposes. I'm afraid governmental proposals like 
> Bart's Dutch one, ore Inspire, for that matter,  are somewhere in the 
> middle: not good enough (by far) to give direction to the people who 
> can really design large structured programs, and not specific enough 
> (or too chaotic in its details) to be of service to the people who 
> have to implement the actual services. The main thing about good 
> programs is structure and extendability, and that is not something 
> that can be achieved by government committees of non-programmers.
>
> And then, Paul's talk is fun to look at and full of positive energy. 
> "C'est le ton qui fait la musique".  (as a Canadian, you do understand 
> French, Paul, don't you? I saw that you put some French at the 
> beginning of the version of that talk at Daniel's  Rendezvous OSGeo at 
> Quebec last month:
>
> http://blog.cleverelephant.ca/2010/06/nerds-redux.html
>
> At least I guess it's French. Not the way they pronounce it over here 
> in Europe :-)
>
> Jan
>
> On 07/07/10 21:29, Paul Ramsey wrote:
>> http://s3.cleverelephant.ca/geoweb-mapserver.pdf
>>
>> On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 12:27 PM, Jan Hartmann<j.l.h.hartmann at uva.nl>  
>> wrote:
>>> Hi Paul, didn't you do a talk somewhere about this aspect of 
>>> MapServer and
>>> PostGIS (written configuration files vs clickable interfaces)? I 
>>> tried to
>>> look it up when reading this thread (I'm also a keyboard person), but
>>> couldn't find it.
>>>
>>> Jan
>>>
>>> On 07/07/10 21:23, Paul Ramsey wrote:
>>>> Yes, get out and go for a run, burn off some negative energy! :)
>>>>
>>>> You can also configure GeoServer programmatically via the RestConfig
>>>> API, though as a long-time MapServer person I still prefer the
>>>> architectural flexibility provided by the consume-map-file-and-render
>>>> map file approach.
>>>>
>>>> P.
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 12:15 PM, Andy 
>>>> Colson<andy at squeakycode.net>    wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> I think you can probably also read some of the reasons of why the 
>>>>>> Dutch
>>>>>> government chose Geoserver, around page 46 in the following 
>>>>>> document (it
>>>>>> also contains a section on Mapserver):
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.geonovum.nl/sites/default/files/algemeen/MOT20100618TechnicalDesignv1.0.pdf 
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> from page 46: "A strong feature of GeoServer is its configuration
>>>>> management. It’s configurable through a web-interface."
>>>>>
>>>>> What?!  That is stupid!  Why in the world would anyone think a
>>>>> web-interface
>>>>> is better?  A text file is 1000 times easier to use.  Its searchable!
>>>>>   Its
>>>>> find/replace'able, its scriptable!
>>>>>
>>>>> The only thing you can do with a web interface is click.  That's it.
>>>>> Click.
>>>>>   But find the right place to click, by clicking in all the right 
>>>>> magic
>>>>> spots.  Wanna change all your red's to blue's?  Start clicking. Click
>>>>> each
>>>>> and every spot, because you cant automate it, or script it, or even
>>>>> search.
>>>>>   Its stupid.
>>>>>
>>>>> The only reason to have a web interface is to make the dumb people 
>>>>> feel
>>>>> more
>>>>> comfortable.  And do you really want the dumb people f'ing around 
>>>>> with
>>>>> your
>>>>> map server?  No!  I say no, use a text file that the dumb people are
>>>>> afraid
>>>>> to touch.  If they cant pass the test of learning the syntax then 
>>>>> they
>>>>> should not be allowed to play!  Dont make it easy for them to mess 
>>>>> up.
>>>>>
>>>>> Whew.. I feel better.  Guess I have some issues I need to work 
>>>>> through.
>>>>> :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> -Andy
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> mapserver-dev mailing list
>>>>> mapserver-dev at lists.osgeo.org
>>>>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-dev
>>>>>
>>>>>
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