[Qgis-developer] Newbie plugin developer question

[Jeff Hamann]

I have completed a proof of concept experimental intelligent software  
agent (server-side) for forest and forestry data, and now need to  
generate a client/consumer interface for editing and updating rows in  
a PostGIS database housed on a server far away (think dial-up and  
remote connections). I have selected to develop it as a QGIS plugin.

1) I've never written a python program in my life, but given a decent  
IDE I'm sure I can manage it in no time. I've been developing  C/C++  
code for 20 years.
2) The plugin needs to work on several platforms. I spend most of my  
time in OSX, but the target audience is Windows users. I run windows  
under a virtual machine.
3) Users will have local copies of the data(base) and need to sync the  
data with the server (once a week? once a day?)

My question is this:

Can I develop this plugin using an IDE (Eclipse or Dev Studio)?
If I go with Python, what gotchas am I running into? Single level  
menus under Plugins or anywhere in menu tree?
If I use C++ do I need to build all of QGIS an any platform I want to  
run the plugin on from source?

So far, I've assumed the user will download the OSGEO4W for QGIS, so  
I've assumed they can connect to my repository and install it that  
way. Is that rational regardless of how it's built?

Thanks,
Jeff.

Jeff Hamann, PhD
PO Box 1421
Corvallis, Oregon 97339-1421
541-754-2457
jeff.hamann[at]forestinformatics[dot]com
http://www.forestinformatics.com

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