[postgis-users] Good mailing list for FOSS GIS desktop clientdiscussion?

[Jonathan Aguero]

Dana,
There is some query capabilities for postgis layers already implemented in
QGIS 0.8 pre1; right click the layer of interest and go to properties then
query builder. This will give only the SQL where clause but at least you
have something. Other option is to actually run your queries in postgreSQL
(pgadmin3 if you need a GUI client) and then display them in QGIS as views
or tables.
For your analysis and transformation needs you might want to take a look at
the GRASS plug-in for QGIS available also for windows. This plug-in brings
most GRASS commands within your reach. GRASS is very powerful especially for
raster analysis and it also has become pretty good on vectors lately.
On the symbology issue I agree 100% with you, you might want to post
questions about future enhancements in this area at the qgis list (check
their webpage).
Transparency is implemented in QGIS 0.8, check it out.
I also think that is really odd that webmapping software (mapserver) and
spatial databases (PG/PostGIS) have significantly evolved in recent years
and are a viable alternative to commercial software while there is no FOSS
Desktop GIS alternative. 
Finally, take a look at the lists for qgis, grass and OSgeo.com.

Jonathan Aguero Valverde
Research Assistant and Ph.D. Candidate
Pennsylvania State University
The Pennsylvania Transportation Institute
201 Transportation Research Building
University Park, PA 16802
www.personal.psu.edu/jua130

-----Original Message-----
From: postgis-users-bounces at postgis.refractions.net
[mailto:postgis-users-bounces at postgis.refractions.net] On Behalf Of dnrg
Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2006 11:17 AM
To: postgis postgis
Subject: [postgis-users] Good mailing list for FOSS GIS desktop
clientdiscussion?

Any good email discussion lists for FOSS GIS desktop
client discussion?

I've been playing with Quantum GIS (and adding PostGIS
layers), but I'm disappointed that:

-- There's no query functionality whatsoever - only
the ability to open an attribute table and sort
ascending or descending.
-- There are no analysis or transformation
capabilities
-- Symbology options are primitive
-- Layers don't have transparency

Nice interface and a terrific start, but aside from
panning and zooming there isn't much functionality.

Can anyone recommend a good GIS desktop client for
Windows? I know GRASS is probably the best client, but
I think it'll take a good desktop client for Windows
(without having to use something like CygWin) to
provide a real alternative to commercial GIS desktop
clients.

The commercial market leader in desktop GIS clients
seems to be light years away from any of the
Windows-based open source FOSS GIS clients; unless I'm
missing something.

Is there a windows-based FOSS GIS client that at 
least has basic query abilities? Or do I need to fire
up MapServer and use that to do queries? Seems odd
that MapServer would have more functionality than any
windows-based FOSS GIS desktop, non-web based client.
Or maybe not, given that a browser provides a nice GUI
to build on.

Sorry for the non-PostGIS digression.

Frustrated as heck with Quantum GIS,

Dana


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