Re: [udig-devel] An effort on collaboration...

["Sunburned Surveyor" <sunburned.surveyor@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the responses Jesse. I've responded below:

Jesse wrote: "You might want to take a look at Geotools since it does this sort of
thing.  Shapefile support is pretty complete in geotools although the
code needs to be cleaned up a bit by now as it has been through a few
iterations."

I've actually subscribed to the GeoTools Developer Mailing List and took a look at the Javadoc for the Shapefile classes. At first glance it seems that everything I will need is there. I'm sure glad I decided to take a look as this will save me days of work. If there is a list of things that need to be done with the Shapefile classes, or a place where I can find bugs related to there use I see if I can do some of the clean up. If nothing else I'll keep a list of possible improvements to the code/API as I work with them in my Shapefile support for OpenJUMP.

Jesse wrote: "You ideas about catalog would be valuable.  We've had a uDig catalog
for a while and introduced it to Geotools but time has come to review
it and see if there are improvements/simplifications that can be made."

Perhaps I can look at this in a month or two.

Jesse wrote: "At the very least I think we can trade ideas for design.  And code
sharing may become apparent."

Sounds good to me. I actually suspect there is a lot of code in GeoTools that I can use in OpenJUMP. To be honest, the last time I took a look at GeoTools my knowledge of Java was a lot more limited.

I'd like to make some contributions too. :]

Jesse wrote: "In actual fact I think it was a port from a JUMP plugin.  The work
stopped before it got very far unfortunately.  For example it could
only read features no write capabilities."

Yup. OpenJUMP does have a DXF plug-in, but it is also somewhat limited. DXF support will be critical if I'm ever going to get OpenJUMP used at my day job. We're so AutoCAD dependent it's disgusting. This is definitely an area I can give something back to GeoTools.

Jesse wrote: "If you would like we can organize an IRC meeting at some point."

I must admit I'm no expert at IRC. I seem to enjoy the slow pace of e-mail. :] I'm open to IRC though.

Landon

On 1/31/07, Jesse Eichar <jeichar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 31-Jan-07, at 11:49 AM, Sunburned Surveyor wrote:

> There has been some interesting e-mails on the JPP Developer
> mailing list the last few hours. I won't bore everyone with the
> details, but the discussion has made me realize that I need to do a
> bettter job building a good working relationship with the UDig
> developers. I have talked about some of this with Jody before, but
> I found that opportunities to share code were limited because UDig
> and OpenJUMP have some significant differences in design and
> architecture. For example, the ability to share GUI code is
> severely limited. I quickly dismissed any real effort to share code
> becuase I felt that it would be to much work.
>
> Perhaps that was a mistake on my part. I didn't realize it at the
> time, but the good relationship with UDiggers is another benefit of
> the effort that will be needed to share more code between the
> projects, and I didn't consider that benefit before. If we want
> open source GIS to be a success, especially in the Java world, then
> we need to work together.
>
> Let me briefly list some of what I am working on in OpenJUMP. If
> the UDiggers are interested, I will put some hard work into
> creating code that can be used by both projects. (I'll need some
> guidance on how this can be done.)
>
> [1] I'm working on a ESRI Shapefile parser as part of my long-term
> plan to overcome some of OpenJUMP's memory limitations. I hope this
> parser will provide "iterative" and RAM independent access to
> features. I also want it to offer access to features based on
> location and attribute values. I think that is something that the
> UDig team could tap into. (Imagine a dialog that allows the user to
> import all features in a Roads Shapefile with a type attribute with
> that has a value of highway...)
>
> As part of my work on the ESRI Shapefile parser I've been putting
> together a group tools that can be used to represent and manipulate
> binary data. I've made these classes rather generic, and they could
> be applied to the I/O of other binary file formats, not just ESRI
> Shapefiles.

You might want to take a look at Geotools since it does this sort of
thing.  Shapefile support is pretty complete in geotools although the
code needs to be cleaned up a bit by now as it has been through a few
iterations.

>
> [2] I've done some work for a private company that involved
> creation of a "data source catalog" for OpenJUMP. My main goal when
> designing the system was to allow users to track the association
> between data sources and layers. The work on the catalog has come
> to a standstill, but I hope to conitnue it when the ESRI Shapefile
> parser is complete and I implement a Shapefile Data Source.
>
> I think this may be the greatest opportunity for collaboration
> between UDig and OpenJUMP. Wouldn't it be great if the two programs
> could share the same tools for I/O, and if users could work with
> geospatial data sources through a somewhat similar catalog system?

You ideas about catalog would be valuable.  We've had a uDig catalog
for a while and introduced it to Geotools but time has come to review
it and see if there are improvements/simplifications that can be made.

>
> [3] I've been overhauling OpenJUMP's CursorTool code. I don't know
> how much of this code could be used by UDig, because it is fairly
> high-level and GUI related. However, I am going to be working on
> some algorithms that compute "snapping" points on JTS Geometries,
> and some of those algorithms might be useful to UDiggers. I'm also
> tying in some of these CursorTools to a "Poisition Clipboard". I
> think that is something that UDig might find handy. (Once again, we
> would need to wrap the underlying code in a different GUI.)

At the very least I think we can trade ideas for design.  And code
sharing may become apparent.

>
> [4] At some point I need to write a DXF Parser for OpenJUMP. I've
> looked at the spec, and even started sketching some notes on how I
> would implement this. I think UDig had some DXF support as a plug-
> in at some point. This is also something I need to look at.
>

In actual fact I think it was a port from a JUMP plugin.  The work
stopped before it got very far unfortunately.  For example it could
only read features no write capabilities.

If you would like we can organize an IRC meeting at some point.

Jesse
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