Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Mapmakers of old
Chapter 14
Writing Your Own
GIS Applications
Most GIS users have ventured into the realm of programming—whether
it be writing scripts or full-blown applications. Scripting is quite useful
Sometimes you find yourself in a position where you need a customized
application. The full version of your favorite OSGIS application is per-
haps overkill or doesn't provide the features you need. Often trying to
twist the application into the form you need results in a system that
is not user-friendly and is difficult to use. Many disciplines can benefit
from a lightweight custom application that serves a specific need. These
are the reasons for writing such an application; let's look at some of the
specifics.
14.1
Options for Writing Your Application
If we are going to write an application, there are some things we don't
want to build from scratch:
• Low-level drawing routines for displaying raster and vector data
• Read/write access to our data stores
• Renderers such as unique value and graduated symbol
• Legend generation
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