Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
mobile phone operators for managing their network map assets. Like Oracle Spatial, you'll
rarely come across this package unless you have a very specialized management system
for your geospatial data.
While it can load and work with all the common map formats and services like Bing, Google,
and others, MapInfo's primary design is to handle non-standard data in large, heavily
customized GIS databases. Its strength lies in its ability to be extended using its own
programming language called MapBasic that is often deployed in many custom
configurations. For instance, it may be deployed in a wireless service's operator consoles for
showing where network faults are located, or at a delivery service for keeping track of its
vehicles.
You can find more info about Pitney Bowes MapInfo at
OpenJUMP
Now we come to the first of the open source desktop offerings, OpenJUMP. Designed from
the start to be open source, it's built using the Java platform, and as expected can talk to
most of the GIS databases in use today.
It allows you to load and view your own spatial data, handle shapefiles and GML files, and
export maps as SVG for display on the web.
Its primary purpose is to edit mapping data in preparation for creating vector maps for web
use. I've personally never used OpenJUMP, but it seems like a very capable package for
creating web maps from scratch.
Figure 6: Using OpenJUMP
You can find more out about OpenJUMP at
www.openjump.org
.
