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

Simon Cropper (Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd) scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au
Thu Nov 26 23:53:19 CET 2009


Hi,

I have responded to Mario's reply to my comment on the online 
documentation . As I expressed in that response I am happy to provide 
help copy editing the English Translations. Unfortunately I can not 
speak Spanish so I can not translate, although if online tools such as 
Google Translate are used I could help converting blocks of text from 
one language to another, copy edit the resulting text and provide these 
drafts to gvSIG for verification. I must be missing something though as 
I would expect that the "Whats New to Version 1.9" webpage would only 
take a day or so to convert from Spanish to English. As I said, I have 
not translated a document before so I am naive here regarding the 
processes, but I have been using the automatic Google Translate facility 
to read the above mentioned webpage and it seems reasonably accurate. 
Apart from recreating the images using the English version of the GUI, 
one would presume you could do a first draft of the text in several hours.

Cheers Simon

Simon Cropper
Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
PO Box 160, Sunshine, Victoria 3020.
P: 9311 5822. M: 041 830 3437.
mailto: scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au 
<mailto:scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au>
web: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au <http://www.botanicusaustralia.com.au>



José Antonio Canalejo Alonso wrote:
> Hello Simon, 
> it would very good to have good documentation of gvSIG in english. I´m sure your input here could be very interesting. There are a lot of high quality documentation of gvSIG in spanish. Also the language interface of gvSIG should be available without mistakes in english.
> There are groups of users in several languages who are working on the translation. If you want, take kontakt please with Mario Carrera <carrera_marrod at gva.es>. He coordinates the translation in other languages.
> Cheers and thank you very much for your input and time!
> Jose
>
>  --
> José Antonio Canalejo Alonso
> CSGIS
> Email:jose.canalejo at csgis.de
> Web: http://www.csgis.de
>
>
>
> ----- Mensaje original ----
>   
>> De: Simon Cropper (Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd) <scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au>
>> Para: Users and Developers mailing list <gvsig_internacional at listserv.gva.es>
>> Enviado: jue,26 noviembre, 2009 03:08
>> Asunto: [Gvsig_english] gvSIG is a viable robust alternative to commercially available GIS packages
>>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> I suppose this is preaching to the converted but I think it is worth 
>> getting positive feedback about your product, rather than "What about 
>> this?" or "Do you know about this bug".
>>
>> I am a environmental consultant. Every job requires the acquisition and 
>> creation of geospatial data, simple geospatial analysis and the 
>> preparation of maps. Every job has variations on the theme with clients 
>> providing information in various datums and formats. Output is 
>> relatively constant with maps being used as JPGs in reports or supplied 
>> as shapefiles to the client. OK, this gives you some background to my 
>> situation and needs.
>>
>> Originally I used ArcView, but have over the last year been searching 
>> for a reliable and robust alternative. I have tried QGIS, Grass, Kosmo, 
>> OpenJUMP, JUMP, llwis, OpenEV, etc to carry out what I needed. I tried 
>> early versions of gvSIG but found some basic requirements were not meet. 
>> Beta versions of 1.9 looked OK but they were unstable with regular 
>> crashes making it difficult to justify the time to learn the program.
>>
>> Now that the stable version of 1.9 has been made available I have 
>> started using it in production. My belief is that the only way to verify 
>> if some thing is going to work is feed it real data and try to do real 
>> things with it. You will have noticed I have been regularly posting to 
>> the list server as I (a) explore the interface and try and understand 
>> how things are done, and (b) as I have uncovered various little glitches.
>>
>> OK, my initial feedback after working with the program for several weeks 
>> is...
>> 1) the transition from ArcView to gvSIG was seamless with most functions 
>> being found in similar locations. I had a similar experience when 
>> trialling Kosmo, but not with any of the other packages mentioned.
>> 2) gvSIG uses ECW, Shape, DWG, DXF -- all file formats I regularly 
>> encounter.
>> 3) gvSIG can convert from AGD66 geo/AMG55 to GDA94 geo/MGA55 -- 
>> something I need to do regularly. I did note however that the gvSIG 
>> files created varied slightly from files reprojected in ArvView. I will 
>> need to do some testing of both systems to verify that the output is 
>> comparable.
>> 4) gvSIG could handle quite a lot of data, files, annotations, etc. The 
>> only time I noticed the system slowing down was in producing a map. Slow 
>> but it did not crash.
>> 5) I have only had gvSIG crash a couple of times. These instances appear 
>> to be related to small bugs. In comparison with ArcView this is quite 
>> good - for some largish projects ArcView would crash 3-4 times a day 
>> (bad memory management). It is worth noting that I was using ArcView 3.1 
>> which is currently not still supported and is struggling to keep up with 
>> Operating System changes (XP service packs, Vista).
>> 6) I am keen to eventually migrate from Windows XP to Ubuntu or Debian, 
>> so am keen to ensure the system I use is suitable for these operating 
>> systems. gvSIG does, so this is great.
>> 7) I am still keen to see the map production facility improved. 
>> especially the output. I found I got a much better output file by 
>> capturing the screen and manipulating in GIMP, than use of any of the 
>> output options. I have not printed directly to a printer so can't 
>> comment on the ability to gvSIG to render a map properly. My needs are 
>> primarily generation of a file than can be imported into OpenOffice Writer.
>> 8) Coupled with Sextante, gvSIG captures most of the tasks that I have 
>> done over the last 15 years. Table 1 shows my checklist of things I 
>> commonly do and whether I have figured out if gvSIG does them. Any help 
>> filling in the blanks would be appreciated. I will update my post with a 
>> completed table if I receive any feedback.
>> 9) I have not been able to find any good tutorials on how to use the 
>> command box when editing a shapefile or the JPython Console. These 
>> features look very promising but without some sort of tutorial, examples 
>> or manuals it is impossible to evaluate these facilities. This was the 
>> old aspect that ESRI has over the open source communities -- they have a 
>> quite large and easily navigated script library which allows for people 
>> to contribute scribes for manipulation of spatial data and extensions 
>> that can be downloaded.
>>
>> All in all what I am trying to say is gvSIG is fantastic. Everyday I 
>> learn about some new feature and I can't stop smiling. I think that 
>> finally I can legitimately say I have found an open source GIS system 
>> that has surpassed ArcView 3. Considering the plethora of open source 
>> packages available it has been frustrating that no one package bundled 
>> the core elements required by users like myself into one place. gvSIG 
>> has now done this and included a range of other features to boot. I am 
>> very pleased and want to congratulate the developers and the Generalitat 
>> Valenciana on a fantastic product. I look forward to being part of this 
>> dynamic open source community, and helping further the development of 
>> this product.
>>
>>
>> Table 1. Things I need a GIS system to do. If people can provide comment 
>> on any of the functions flagged with '?', I would appreciate it.
>>
>> *Broad Category*     *Function*     *gvSIG 1.9
>> *
>> PLATFORM     Familiar program structure     YES 
>> PLATFORM     Intuative structure     YES
>> PLATFORM     Linux Compatible     YES
>> PLATFORM     Project file to retain previous settings     YES
>> PLATFORM     Windows compatible     YES
>> SUPPORT     Able to be extended through scripts     YES
>> SUPPORT     Active script library     NO
>> SUPPORT     Manual     YES 
>> SUPPORT     Forums     YES
>> LEXICON     SHP Support     YES 
>> LEXICON     CAD Support     YES
>> LEXICON     DGN support     ? 
>> LEXICON     DXF Support     YES
>> LEXICON     ECW Support     YES
>> LEXICON     JPEG Support     YES
>> LEXICON     MapInfo Support     ?
>> LEXICON     MrSID Support      APPARENTLY  
>> LEXICON     GDA94 Support     YES 
>> LEXICON     AGD66 Support      YES
>> VECTOR     Features in shapefile - add, edit, delete      YES
>> VECTOR     Points Images/fonts, scaleable      YES
>> VECTOR     Polygon Area, Cleaning tools, centroids      YES
>> VECTOR     Projections on the fly      NO
>> VECTOR     Shapefile - add, edit, delete      YES
>> VECTOR     Warp line files      ?
>> RASTER     Change header data in supported image types (georeference)      YES
>> RASTER     Use or convert TAB world files      ?
>> CONVERSION     Cut-and-paste sections of aerial photographs and retain 
>> georeferencing      YES
>> CONVERSION     Graphics to Shape, Shape to Graphic      NO
>> CONVERSION     Polygon to Polyline      ?
>> CONVERSION     Polyline to Line      ?
>> CONVERSION     Reproject AGD66 --> GDA94      YES
>> ANALYSIS     Address location along polyline      ?
>> ANALYSIS     Buffer Features - field, value      YES
>> ANALYSIS     Explode complex polygon files      ?
>> ANALYSIS     Get coordinates for vertices      ?
>> ANALYSIS     Identify features within distance      ?
>> ANALYSIS     Image pattern analysis to extract vegetation types      ?
>> ANALYSIS     Insert northing, easting, latitude and longitude      YES
>> ANALYSIS     Get distance between objects     ? 
>> ANALYSIS     Intersect Lines     ?
>> ANALYSIS     Line length      YES
>> ANALYSIS     Line or polygon intersect
>>     YES 
>> ANALYSIS     Nearest Feature     Sextante? 
>> ANALYSIS     Nearest Neighbour Analysis
>>     Sextante?
>> ANALYSIS     Update areas, perimeters, hectares and length      YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Map production facility      YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Ability to create or import legend symbology      YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Legends complex - based on more than one field      NO
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Export maps JPG      NO
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Export maps WMF      NO
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Export maps SVG      NO
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Gradicules and measured Grids      YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Gradicules - dynamic      YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Labels - add, edit, delete      YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Legend categories - unique value, graduated colour or 
>> single      YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Legends Auto Label      YES
>> CARTOGRAPGHY     Text - add, edit, delete      YES
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>>
>> Cheers Simon
>>
>> Simon Cropper
>> Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
>> PO Box 160, Sunshine, Victoria 3020.
>> P: 9311 5822. M: 041 830 3437.
>> mailto: scropper at botanicusaustralia.com.au 
>>
>> web: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au 
>>
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