[Gvsig_english] gvSIG is a viable robust alternative to commercially available GIS packages

[Jorge Gaspar Sanz Salinas]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

What a great post Silvio thanks, let me ǝɯɐlɟ, I mean, answer you :P

silvio grosso escribió:
> Hello
> everybody,
>  
> THANKS a
> lot for this REALLY interesting discussion.
> 
> I know it
> is always quite "odious" and rude to compare similar softwares.
> In doing so, you are supposed to
> imply that one software is better than another.
> Especially for developers,  it could be  a bit
> frustrating because you make yourself the "judge" of their work…Without giving anything in return
> This is particularly true with Open-source
> softwares where most developers work for free in their spare time.
> 
> gvSIG 1.9 is really really nice. 
> I like it really much :-)
> In addition, I have read the abstracts concerning next  gvSIG's Conference (http://jornadas.gvsig.org/Documentos/5th_gvSIG_Conference_Abstracts.pdf).
> There are plenty of new features planned for next versions :-)
> 
> All this being explained, I would like to add something more to this discussion.
> In short, I would like to make a compairon between gvSIG and Qgis (http://qgis.org/).
> Please, don't flame me :-(
> I use both gvSIG and Qgis and I love them equally, even though, in the end, I prefer to use gvSIG :-)
> 

Well, the great thing about free software is that you have expertise
in a technology, not a brand, so you are good enough to use the best
software the "free world" can offer you (and it's great that you
prefer gvSIG)


> In my modest opinion, at present, Qgis has some little advantages over gvSIG.
> To sum up they are:
> 1. Qgis is much MORE configurable than gvSIG. 
> You can create, modify, delete your shortcuts. 
> Even the tool-bars are dockable everywhere in the Gui (e.g. on the left or right).
> This being said Mario Carrera, a Spanish developer, explained us in this mailing  list that this situation is going to change for the best (see http://listserv.gva.es/pipermail/gvsig_internacional/2009-September/003808.html).

QT is a great graphic toolkit and smart QGis developers use the best
QT can offer. In our side things are trickier and we have to work more
on the main GUI features to provide a more "modern" look and feel.

> 2. You can use many Grass' modules. 
> This advantage is going to be partially deleted by Sextante and the work of Benjamin Ducke (see his post http://listserv.gva.es/pipermail/gvsig_internacional/2009-October/003849.html).

Exact, if you need GRASS processing capabilities you'll be able to use
them as sextante algorithms, taking advantage of other great sextante
features like the modeller.

> 3. You can use Spatialite (see its web-page or this link concerning the features of the upcoming 2.4 version: http://www.gaia-gis.it/spatialite-2.4.0/road_map.html)
> One idea was to  try  to "sponsor" a Google summer of code project for next Summer.

Hopefully, with the new DAL library, adding new spatial drivers would
be easier for developers. I have no idea if there is a JDBC driver to
connect to sqlite from Java.

As one of the mentors of this year GSoC, I would love to see new ideas
like this one arising for next year!!

> 4. You can use R. 
> This being said, at present, there is a project which aims to integrate R with Sextante (see: http://r-forge.r-project.org/projects/spsextante/). 
> 5. You can create charts (diagrams and pie). 
> Even this advantage could be deleted by the Carthema project named Tcharting tool (see http://listserv.gva.es/pipermail/gvsig_internacional/2009-November/004012.html).
> 6. You can use Python which, I am told, is easy for beginners to create GIS extensions. 
> With gvSIG there is Jpython but it seems to me it is not too "succesful" at present. 
> For Qgis, nowdays, there are plenty of Python plug-ins already developed by third-parts.

As I said, gvSIG 2.0 will have a new scripting extension, mainly to
support Python developers but also other languages like JavaScript,
BeanShell and hopefully Groovy (I like this one :P)

> 7. Qgis documtation is in English. This is a boon for strangers.
> To change subject, ArcGis is also great because of its documentation.
> Even a noob as myself can learn quick how to work on it :-)
> In my opinion, sorry to say so, the previous gvSIG's English manual (1.1.2 version) was not as good as the original manual in the Spanish version.

Well, as you know, this is one our biggest weaks. The documentation is
usually written in Spanish, and translating it in English is a huge
effort. Here the community have a great opportunity to help to have a
better docs not only in English but also in any other language, the
infrastructure is there, and Mario is doing a great job organizing the
translation teams.

> 8. Qgis is portable. 
> You don't need to have any administrator privilege to install it on your computer.
> This being stated, a gvSIG's super, power-user, explained us how to remedy (see http://listserv.gva.es/pipermail/gvsig_internacional/2009-August/003639.html). 

I've recently helped someone to prepare a portable version of gvSIG
1.9 for windows, based on the work we made two years ago for gvSIG
1.1. Maybe we can try to have this new portable version online, at
least for windows users.

> 9. You can export Qgis's map as png and svg. 
> This being explained, the export as svg is not really "perfect" in Qgis (see this thread: http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-developer/2009-October/007911.html).
> At present, with gvSIG you can create a screenshot of your map and save it into Gimp. 
> This gives you an image of 75 dpi which is not great...
> Another solution is to save the Map as pdf.
> Once you have your pdf you can save it as jpg. 
> For instance, on Windows,  with the really nice freeware named Pdf x-change viewer (you find it at http://www.docu-track.com/downloads/users/). On Linux you can use Wine to run it.
> Pdf x-change viewer has even a portable version.
> In my opinion, Pdf x-change viewer, is much better than the Acrobat reader version which is installed often in brand-new computers in Italy.
> 10. Qgis runs better on Mac than gvSIG. 
> I am not a Mac's user but I have often read some complaints about the gvSIG's version running on Mac.
> Needless to say, I have read the Mac version is not completely sponsored by gvSIG's Spanish developers.
> 

Doing Java apps for Mac is a PITA because the promise of full
portability of java is not true for the Mac environment. Even without
funds to have experts on Mac, I know someone trying to have a version
of gvSIG 1.9 functional.

> Best regards,
> 
> P.s: I am really looking forward to watch next videos of gvSIG's Conference in Valencia.
> 

It will be funny, because the live audio translation will be mixed
with the video :D

Cheers

- --
Jorge Gaspar Sanz Salinas
Ingeniero en Geodesia y Cartografía
http://www.prodevelop.es
tfno: +34 963 510 612

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJLDmQeAAoJEAOYD75lvHdBqnsH/03zqpFjzvVEJ7eZbH8/J+c4
n3l+RnuKNw0ARJ2jXTwnmRaohLmE4S6z0yrVm2S1RcWWcXdbYnCFr+gnk+HrXnA4
n7ySPERQgFJXIxb0FyPKUX0oHSyB8PaKdMZNW8KaoO8AP37XH7lnPmF1nYYB2xdj
3IhrfBEqBy4cbAJyH7VHZA4uENzPAEC32a2QvfEevI/ylCqpvEayePVAFX4bUVff
GgWq5wsishsUr4spPjIyNhUYM4xyqjEkEAGh+NL9+0Nsi8TLgb/6BtIEfM+klW7q
7mUsd5W3+zJCb/2/W5A2oT/PK5z3Wseg600UjFFdXbFBMDbZw7fa6d0ogkQPNPk=
=qHg5
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----