Spatial Galaxy

QGIS turns twenty this year. I wrote the first lines of code in mid-February of 2002. As many of you may know, the first time the code compiled and ran, it could do one thing: Connect to a Pos...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2022/02/18/qgis-then-and-now/

QGIS has had a lot of landmark events in it’s development. Here are just a few, not necessarily in chronological order: It compiled and ran on Linux, displaying data from a PostGIS database Suc...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2021/12/07/qgis-landmark-events/

Years ago (2011), Nathan Woodrow did a visualization of code commits between QGIS 1.6 and 1.7 using Gource. I wanted to contrast the slow beginning of QGIS in 2002 with the flurry of activity in ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2021/12/04/visualization-of-early-qgis-development/

Gary Sherman has a wide and varied background, including that of geologist, mining engineer, software engineer, publisher, and author. He has authored both technical books and articles, as well a...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/about/

We end our series with a somewhat trivial, though interesting addition to our map and a special offer. Leaflet allows you to add an image that spans a specified region on the map. Here we add a p...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/02/11/leaflet-day-14-image-overlay-and-wrap-up/

Today we’ll take a look at another plugin—one that allows us to interactively change they style of features on our map: Leaflet.StyleEditor. This illustrates how we can customize our map by c...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/02/10/leaflet-day-13-styling-with-a-plugin/

Today we’ll use the qgis2web plugin to export from QGIS to Leaflet. The QGIS project, a location map for the third (in progress) Life on the Alaska Frontier novel, looks like this: Installing q...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/02/09/leaflet-day-12-create-a-leaflet-map-from-qgis/

At its core, Leaflet is designed to be lightweight. That being said, there are hundreds of third-party plugins available to extend and enhance the functionality of your web maps. Today we’ll il...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/02/08/leaflet-day-11-plugins/

In this post we’ll add a link to the towns popup that will display the satellite view on Google Maps. The API for working with Google Maps URLs can be found here: https://developers.google.com/...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/02/06/leaflet-day-10-adding-a-link-to-a-popup/

Today we’re going to use Turf.js to calculate the distance between any two points along the trail. Turf.js is billed as providing “Advanced geospatial analysis for browsers and Node.js.” Th...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/02/04/leaflet-day-9-calculating-distance-with-turf.js/

In this post we’ll add a zoom button to pan the map to one of the towns in the trail stops layer. Adding a Dropdown Box and Button The first thing to do is add the select element and a button t...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/02/01/leaflet-day-8-zoom-to-feature/

In this post, we’ll do a couple of things: Clean up the display of coordinate precision in our popups Add the current coordinates to the map as the mouse moves Coordinate Precision Display The ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/01/30/leaflet-day-7-coordinates/

In this post we’ll switch gears and install Leaflet locally, then add a layer from a GeoPackage file. Installing Leaflet Up until now we’ve been using a hosted version of Leaflet. In other wo...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/01/28/leaflet-day-6-geopackage-layers/

Today we’ll add towns along the trail route that are mentioned in the novels. I hesitate to call them towns, because in 1902, many of them consisted of a view indigenous people and sometimes a ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/01/27/leaflet-day-5-working-with-features/

Today we’ll add some basemaps and a couple of controls to our map. So far we’ve been using OpenStreetMap as our back drop. There are a couple of tile servers that will give us a little more o...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/01/26/leaflet-day-4-basemaps-and-overlays/

Background In 1902 the only way from the port of Valdez to the Fortymile gold fields was a nearly 400 mile trail through the Alaska wilderness. The Valdez-Eagle trail plays a key role in novels t...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/01/25/leaflet-day-3-the-trail/

I’m starting off slow, so today we’ll add a marker with some extra features. Since the map from yesterday is already centered on the big earthquake, lets add a marker there. Adding a Marker T...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/01/24/leaflet-day-2-adding-a-marker/

Background We at Locate Press have been working on a new book: Leaflet Cookbook, by Numa Gremling. The book is chock-full of over 300 pages of recipes and information to get the most of your web ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/01/23/two-weeks-of-leaflet-day-1/

We’ve released version 3.1 of the Plugin Builder for QGIS 3.x. This version contains a number of bug fixes and performance enhancements. Here are some of the changes included since version 3.0....

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2019/01/02/plugin-builder-3.1/

There’s been several posts to GIS StackExchange along the lines of: Where’s my .qgis3 folder? Prior to QGIS 3, the .qgis/.qgis2 folder was found under your home directory. At version 3, the f...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2018/03/12/wheres-my-.qgis3-folder/

Getting started with Python and QGIS 3 can be a bit overwhelming. In this post we give you a quick start to get you up and running and maybe make your PyQGIS life a little easier. There are likel...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2018/02/13/quick-guide-to-getting-started-with-pyqgis-3-on-windows/

QGIS data providers are written in C++, however it is possible to simulate a data provider in Python using a memory layer and some code to interface with your data. Why would you want to do this?...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2015/03/13/faking-a-data-provider-with-python/

This minor update to the Plugin Builder allows you to choose where your plugin menu will be located. Previously your menu was placed under the Plugins menu. At version 2.8.1 you can choose from t...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2015/02/23/plugin-builder-2.8.1/

Plugin Builder 2.8 is now available. This is a minor update that adds: Suggestion for setting up an issue tracker and creating a code repository Suggestion for a home page Tag selection from a li...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2015/02/20/plugin-builder-2.8/

Here is a short list of resources available when writing Python code in QGIS. If you know of others, please leave a comment. Blogs/Websites In alphabetical order: GIS StackExchange Kartoza Linfin...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2014/10/18/pyqgis-resources/

Getting started with Python and QGIS can be a bit overwhelming. In this post we give you a quick start to get you up and running and maybe make your PyQGIS life a little easier. There are likely ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2014/10/09/a-quick-guide-to-getting-started-with-pyqgis-on-windows/

The Plugin Builder is a great tool for generating a working plugin project that you can customize. One of the main tasks in the development cycle is deploying the plugin to the QGIS plugin direct...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2014/10/09/qgis-development-with-plugin-builder-and-pb_tool/

If you’re a developer, or have looked at the QGIS source code, you’ve likely noticed that most C++ classes in the project start with Qgs. Back before the dark ages of QGIS, Trolltech (now Dig...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2014/03/29/why-qgis-class-names-start-with-qgs/

The PyQGIS Programmer’s Guide is now available in both paperback and PDF. A sample chapter is also available for download. The book is fully compatible with the QGIS 2.x series of releases. See...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2014/03/11/the-pyqgis-programmers-guide/

The preview release of the PyQGIS Programmer’s Guide is now available for purchase from Locate Press.

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2014/01/05/pyqgis-programmers-guide-available/

We’re planning a couple of training classes for March: Introduction to QGIS Extending QGIS with Python Each is a one day class and we plan to run them back to back. If you are local or just wan...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2013/12/10/qgis-training-opportunities/

When writing plugins or scripts it is often necessary to get information about the paths QGIS is using. For example, if we are writing a plugin that uses Python templates to create output based o...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2013/11/06/getting-paths-with-pyqgis/

Nominations for the QGIS PSC closed at 00:00 UTC on August 25, 2013 . With only one nominee for each role, the PSC unanimously moved to accept each without election. The QGIS PSC welcomes new mem...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2013/08/25/welcome-to-new-qgis-psc-members/

The QGIS Project Steering Committee (PSC) has announced a call for nominations to fill three vacant positions: Design Advisor Infrastructure Manager Release Manager Nominations are open until Aug...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2013/08/06/qgis-psc-call-for-nominations/

Do you remember this? If so, you’ve been using QGIS a long time… OGR and PostGIS support No raster support Three widgets on the Symbology tab No symbology in the legend But you could use it h...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2013/04/17/qgis-back-in-the-day/

The Script Runner plugin allows you to manage and execute a collection of scripts in QGIS to automate tasks and perform custom processing. Version 0.6 of Script Runner has been released and inclu...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2013/03/18/new-version-of-the-qgis-script-runner-plugin/

Well not quite destruction, but a bit of hair pulling… While working on an update to the Plugin Builder, I encountered a small problem. The Plugin Builder displays the version number in the tit...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/12/05/littering-your-python-path-the-road-to-destruction/

The Quantum GIS (QGIS) project is happy to announce that the Asia Air Survey Co., Ltd (AAS), a Japanese international consulting company, has become a Gold Sponsor. AAS has committed to providing...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/10/04/qgis-gains-a-gold-sponsor/

It was ten years ago, on July 19, 2002, that QGIS was officially unveiled. That first release was primitive, supporting only PostGIS layers and having little in the way of navigation controls. In...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/07/18/qgis-is-ten-years-old/

Here’s a summary of recent additions and updates to plugins in the QGIS repository. FlowMapper (0.1.1) - Generates flow lines between discreet nodes for depicting spatial interaction data (e.g....

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/04/16/whats-new-in-qgis-plugins/

This week we look at a newly arrived plugin named qNote. This plugin allows you to create a note and store it in a QGIS project file. When the project is loaded, the note is restored and can be v...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/04/06/qgis-plugin-of-the-week-qnote/

The QGIS project has a number of support channels. Like many open source projects, these are loosely coupled. Recently the forum was made read-only and this has prompted a number of questions and...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/04/05/getting-support-for-qgis/

The forum (http://forum.qgis.org) has been closed for new registrations and marked read-only. Users have been encouraged to use http://gis.stackexchange.com instead. If you have an thoughts on th...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/03/31/qgis-forum-is-closed-what-do-you-think/

Following up on my last post, Running Scripts in the Python Console, I created a plugin to simplify running scripts: The Script Runner plugin allows you to add your scripts to a list so they are ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/01/29/script-runner-a-plugin-to-run-python-scripts-in-qgis/

The QGIS Python console is great for doing one-off tasks or experimenting with the API. Sometimes you might want to automate a task using a script, and do it without writing a full blown plugin. ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/01/27/qgis-running-scripts-in-the-python-console/

The raster calculator allows you to perform mathematical operations on each cell in a raster. This can be useful for converting and manipulating your rasters. Operators include: Mathematical (+, ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/01/25/using-the-qgis-raster-calculator/

This week we look at the OpenLayers plugin for QGIS. This plugin allows you to add a number of image services to your map canvas: Google Physical Streets Hybrid Satellite OpenStreetMap Yahoo Stre...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/01/14/qgis-plugin-of-the-week-openlayers/

This week we take a look at a how to plot a terrain profile using the Profile plugin. The plugin can be used with any raster format supported by QGIS. You can can display profiles from up to thre...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2012/01/06/qgis-plugin-of-the-week-profile/

This week we highlight the Points to Paths plugin, a handy way to convert a series of points into line features. This plugin lets you “connect the dots” based on an common attribute and a seq...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/12/30/qgis-plugin-of-the-week-points-to-paths/

QGIS has a lot of plugins, including over 180 that have been contributed by users. If you aren’t using plugins, you are missing out on a lot that QGIS has to offer. I’m starting what I hope t...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/12/23/qgis-plugin-of-the-week-time-manager/

One of the difficult things to track in the open source world is the number of people who actually use your software. In the proprietary commercial world you have licenses, invoices, and so forth...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/12/19/qgis-users-around-the-world/

This post is for those of you that build QGIS on a regular basis and want to keep up with everything going on in the current release branches (1.7.2 and 1.8) as well as the master branch that wil...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/11/14/using-git-with-multiple-qgis-branches/

The Plugin Builder allows you to quickly create a skeleton Python plugin by generating all that boring boilerplate that every plugin requires. Here is a short video showing how to create, compile...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/10/27/using-the-qgis-plugin-builder/

I added a simple feature that allows you to search the IRC logs from #qgis back to May 10, 2006. The search is case sensitive and will return a list of all matches. Not too smart but it will get ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/09/24/search-qgis-irc-logs/

Using the git log leading up to the 1.7 release (June 2011) I put together a graphic that shows the growth of committers working on the project. In 2002 we had two people (me alone up until Octob...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/09/23/history-of-qgis-committers/

Suppose you have a DBF (.dbf) file containing X and Y values that you want to import and save as a spatial layer. QGIS doesn’t support direct import of a DBF file as a map layer, however, we ca...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/01/29/importing-a-dbf-containing-x-y-values-into-qgis/

Writing a QGIS plugin is not overly complicated but represents a bit of work. Using git in conjunction with your development efforts can make sure your investment in coding time is preserved. Dev...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/01/24/developing-qgis-plugins-with-git/

An interesting visualization of QGIS development over the last eight years: http://woostuff.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/generating-a-gource-source-commit-history-visualization-for-qgis-quantum-gis/

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2011/01/03/evolution-of-qgis/

One of the challenges in any open source project is accepting contributions from people that don’t have, need, or want access to your centralized source code repository. Managing repository acc...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/12/27/contributing-to-qgis-using-git/

This is a project I have had lingering around for a while. It is a geospatial data browser written in Python using the PyQt and QGIS bindings. It allows you to navigate a tree structure and previ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/12/15/geoapt-spatial-data-browser/

In any sufficiently aged bureaucracy, process overshadows product.

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/04/06/shermans-law/

Using Git with Subversion makes adding new features easy. Here are the metrics for my latest QGIS hack: SVN revisions by others while working on my branch: 177 Time to complete merge with latest ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/04/04/git-merge-no-problem/

The application deadline for the Google Summer of Code is nearing (April 9). If you are interested in working on QGIS as part of GSOC and need ideas, please see Quantum GIS Wiki. We are waiting f...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/04/02/google-summer-of-code-2010-quantum-gis/

If you use Vim you probably know you can use the make command to build your project. The make command looks for a Makefile in your current directory. If you are editing a file that is not in the ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/03/30/vim-and-cmake-out-of-source-builds/

At the ESRI Developer Summit there was news of the File Geodatabase (FGDB) API. Based on the tweets from the summit it appears: The API will be C++ only API works on Windows and Unix/Linux (speci...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/03/28/speculations-on-the-file-geodatabase-api/

It’s true—everything you have ever done is wrong. If you are a developer, look at the code you wrote five years ago—it’s wrong. If you collect and store data—it’s wrong. This is the n...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/03/28/everything-you-have-done-is-wrong/

In a recent post on VerySpatial.com, Jesse was discussing the apparent dominance of U*nix and observed: ‘…the geospatial industry almost completely left behind support for UNIX-like OSes’ I...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/01/06/gis-for-the-unx-world/

The death of the shapefile has again been predicted—this time for 2010. The technical description of the format has been around for going on 12 years. In that time it has become a sort of lowes...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/01/04/the-shapefile-reports-of-my-deprecation-have-been-greatly-exaggerated/

In my last post I created a poll to get an idea of the extent of migration to open source GIS on the desktop. The results indicated that nearly 50% of the people using open source GIS were still ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2010/01/02/whats-holding-back-the-adoption-of-open-source-gis-on-the-desktop/

I keep seeing more evidence that many people and organizations are migrating to open source GIS on the desktop. In many cases a mix of proprietary and open source GIS is in use. I’m wondering a...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2009/11/20/migrating-to-open-source-gis-on-the-desktop/

$ uptime 20:20:56 up 434 days, 15:31, 2 users, load average: 2.32, 0.89, 0.53

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2009/08/10/i-love-linux/

Take a look at: The Volcano and the Buffer It includes an example that uses CSV, GDAL/OGR VRT, QGIS, and fTools to figure out if I was in danger of being buried in a volcanic ash fall (not much d...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2009/04/27/the-volcano-and-the-buffer-desktop-gis-the-book/

One of the hurdles in developing a QGIS plugin with Python is just getting the basics down. Getting the plugin setup so it is recognized by QGIS and properly adds it’s menu and toolbar items ca...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2009/02/21/pyqgis-plugin-builder/

The recent release of QGIS 1.0 provides an excellent opportunity for developers looking to create standalone mapping applications with Python. I recently posted an article on creating a very simp...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2009/02/10/custom-applications-with-qgis/

Looks like the ink is dry on Desktop GIS and it should start shipping soon. You can get the full scoop from the Pragmatic Bookshelf. Update: It’s now shipping. See the announcement.

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/10/19/the-ink-is-dry/

After a rather long lapse, I had the occasion to write some Java code recently (mainly because it didn’t look like Howard’s PySDE was functional). I didn’t like it. Not to start a language ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/10/02/no-java-please-pass-the-python/

This weekend I finished reviewing Pragmatic Version Control Using Git by Travis Swicegood. If you are a git user or interested in learning about the latest in version control for your source code...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/10/01/git-book/

QgisToMapServer converts a saved QGIS project file to a map file, ready to be served with MapServer. A binary preview version for both Mac and Windows is available now. For Linux/Unix users, the ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/09/19/qgistomapserver-a-conversion-tool/

The book is now available in beta. Excerpts from two of the chapters are available online. What’s a beta book? Well in this case it’s a lot like software—feature complete and ready for you ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/05/07/desktop-gis-the-book-now-in-beta/

Well it was a short summer here. Or perhaps we have defeated global warming. This is the view from the deck on Thursday evening: and this is the view Saturday morning: Of course nearly everyone i...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/04/26/global-warming-defeated-in-alaska/

Everybody who gets an Eee PC has to write about it–it’s required. I don’t really have much to add to the raft of reviews, except for one small point. I found myself wanting to print somethi...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/03/10/obligatory-eee-pc-post/

I’ve come to the conclusion that storing rasters in a database is of dubious value, particularly from a data warehouse perspective. If you manage a collection of rasters that are updated on a f...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/02/15/rasters-in-the-database-why-bother/

Matthew Perry poses the question: Why is the command line a dying art?. Funny how these things go–I was thinking about posting on this same topic just the other day, although I may be repeating...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/02/03/wither-the-command-line/

In Beyond the RDBMS Sean references Martin’s post which in turn points us to a paper (gotta love the web in action) promoting “The End of an Architectural Era”. This paper advocates the com...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2008/01/31/beyond-the-rdbms/

The Pragmatic Programmers have announced the upcoming Desktop GIS title.

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/11/07/desktop-gis-the-book/

I use my MacBook as my “command center”, connecting to the other machines I need to work on using ssh and Nx. After a bit of tuning, I had this working nicely under Tiger. Enter Leopard. I up...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/11/03/the-leopard-limps-a-bit/

Following the instructions for a “hard” upgrade in Chapter 2. Installation of the PostGIS manual results in large objects not being restored to the database. If you create a dump using pg_dum...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/10/28/upgrading-postgis-in-a-database-with-large-objects/

I guess Ubuntu must be popular. I’m just trying to upgrade my Feisty install so I can do the upgrade to Gutsy. Looks like it’s going to take a while…

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/10/19/the-long-road-to-gutsy/

Well, the QGIS workshop at FOSS4G2007 is history. We had a capacity crowd and covered a lot of ground in a short 3 hours. Rumor is there are some pictures and heaven forbid, audio from the worksh...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/09/24/qgis-workshop-at-foss4g2007-a-done-deal/

Day 0 - Things are hopping in Victoria. Yesterday I helped a big group of volunteers set up 160+ PCs for the Workshops and the Labs. People filtered in all day and the process of putting faces to...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/09/24/foss4g2007-day-0-wrapup-and-whats-next/

This is an experience report–your mileage may vary_ I decided to give JUMP another try today. So I downloaded the latest release (1.2) and unzipped it into a directory. Looking at the JUMP Inst...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/05/12/jump-start/

Marco Hugentobler at the Institute of Cartography, ETH Zurich has announced the QGIS MapServer project. From the website: “QGIS mapserver is a server module for geographic maps. The content of ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/05/11/qgis-mapserver/

Is desktop GIS software a rusty old car with no wheels? Bouncing around the blogosphere sometimes leaves you with that impression. All the excitement these days seems to center around mashups, ha...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/04/29/desktop-gis-a-car-with-no-wheels/

Here is the process I used to quickly build (OK, but it was faster than usual) QGIS HEAD on Feisty Fawn. What’s QGIS HEAD? It’s the current development version that includes the tasty Python ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/04/27/building-qgis-on-feisty-fawn/

And so it begins. Chad has made a plea to Microsoft to help sort out issues with the latest World Wind release and Vista. The new security features are causing problems and I suspect that World W...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/02/17/vista-and-open-source/

a great divide separates the typical open source developer and user. each has differing expectations, assumptions, and priorities. the interaction between developer and user can be helpful, cordi...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/02/03/the-great-divide-user-and-developer/

Why would you want to run the Windows version of QGIS on Linux? Because its there. Actually, it may be a useful way to test the Windows version without firing up the dusty old Win32 box. I did th...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2007/01/10/running-qgis-for-windows-on-linux/

I remember growing up and reading predictions for the new year developed by some prognosticator, supposedly in the know. Of course most of the time it was all wrong, but often made for interestin...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/12/20/top-ten-open-source-gis-predictions-for-2007/

I was interested to read that ArcGIS Image Server is now available. Now I admit that I haven’t had any advanced information about the product (has anybody?) but was disappointed to find that it...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/12/15/arcgis-image-server/

In an effort to obtain a faster and lightweight solution, I decided to use Lighttpd (AKA Lighty) with FastCGI to power MapServer. Snooping around the MapServer site yielded no clues on how to con...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/10/17/configuring-lighttpd-with-fastcgi-for-mapserver/

It amazes me how people fail to communicate when speaking about technical matters. I’m sure you have heard this refrain: “My computer doesn’t work” or perhaps “Program XYZ blows up”. ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/09/18/oblique-speak-in-the-technical-realm/

I’ve had to lower my expectations of the Open Source GIS user community. Now that I have your attention, I’ll explain. The OSGIS user community by and large is composed of a great bunch of fo...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/08/26/diminished-expectations/

How can we make getting started in Open Source GIS easier? To begin with, it needs to be easier to Discover Install Use Discovery This is probably the least of the problems, but you would be surp...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/07/12/making-open-source-gis-easier/

Lets face it, GIS systems are complicated. Typically there are multiple servers and applications that make up a “system”. Each of these represent a potential point of failure, thus creating a...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/04/29/brittle-systems/

GIS data is like an illicit drug. You can’t control it. It travels in secret and hides in the dark alleys of your organization. Its effect spreads and enslaves those that use it. In the end it ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/03/29/gis-data-is-an-illicit-drug/

In this day of GUI GIS, sometimes you can’t beat the good old command line for getting a job done, regardless of whether you use Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, or Windows. This may sound strange coming ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/02/24/hail-the-command-line/

One of the often overlooked support mechanisms for Open Source GIS applications is Internet Relay chat, better known as IRC. Many OS GIS projects maintain an IRC presence. Often times you will fi...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/02/07/free-support-for-open-source-gis/

The MapServer Technical Steering Committee today approved an RFC that calls for MapServer to join the newly formed Open Source Geospatial Foundation. A poll has been put up on the MapServer site ...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/02/06/should-mapserver-join-osgeo/

This is an unofficial recap of the OSGF meeting, based on my recollections having spent 10 hours on IRC and the phone. I’m sure the foundation will release an official version of the day’s ev...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/02/04/open-source-geospatial-foundation-meeting-review/

Well, I have been participating in the “GeoFoundation” Meeting since 5:30 am local time this morning. We’re two hours into the meeting and so far a name for the foundation has been agreed u...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/02/04/open-source-geospatial-foundation/

I use Linux and OS X as my primary operating systems. Lately I have been using the Powerbook exclusively with ssh or FreeNx to work on the Linux machines on the network. I started off to simply r...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2006/01/28/dual-booting-the-powerbook/

This site aims to bring out some of the latest and sometimes not-so-greatest happenings in the GIS world. We’ll focus to large extent on Open Source software but hopefully mix it up to keep thi...

http://spatialgalaxy.net/2005/11/25/spatial-galaxy/