Sunday, June 29, 2008

uDig in the osgeo4w stack

I just repackaged the last available uDig snapshot to be avaiable through the osgeo4w online installer for windows.

General info can be found here.

To install uDig and loads of other GFOSS stuff just click here.

Easy, easy...

Friday, June 27, 2008

Zooming and Panning Tips

This is just a quick list of all the ways that one can zoom and pan a map around:

The simplest way is to use the Zoom and Pan tools but there are other tricks when other tools are active.

Zooming:
  • Scroll wheel
  • CTRL + and CTRL = 
  • CTRL-backspace to zoom to map extents

Panning:
  • Press 3rd mouse button and drag the map
  • CTRL arrow to pan 

If you are on OSX use Command in place of CTRL.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Use of Cartoons in Teaching

I have just finished reading Joel's book on the best software writing. One of the best ones was an intro to Ruby using cartoon foxes.
What is the Point?

CRS-less Geotiff hint

I'm sure many of you know this. But that's ok I'll send it out anyhow.

If you have a problem importing a Geotiff and GDAL is ok with the Geotiff, it is probably because the Geotiff
1. Too large
2. Does not have a CRS defined.

For the too large solution I will provide a separate hint for the too large issue.

First how do you tell the Geotiff has no CRS. Using GDAL you can use the command:

> gdalinfo my_geotiff.tif

The result will have the line:

Coordinate System is `'

This means there is not CRS. Suppose the correct CRS is EPSG:4326 (lat long). Use the command:

> gdalwarp -s_srs EPSG:4326 -t_srs EPSG:4326 my_geotiff.tif referenced_geotiff.tif

I'm not a gdal wizard so you may have to regenerate pyramids and so on but uDig 1.1 can use the referenced_geotiff.tif now.

Another note is that uDig 1.1 loads the tif into memory so you have to allocate uDig enough memory and also you don't need to worry about overviews and pyramids. uDig 1.2 will fix this problem.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

IRC Logs for June 23th

Agenda: 1) what is up 2) steering committee 3) 1.1.0 4) Eclipse 3.4 party
Agenda:
1) what is up
2) steering committee
3) 1.1.0
4) Eclipse 3.4 party

jgarnettwell the chat started; you can do a formal meeting in a bit.
moovida:) just wanted be sure the time is right
jgarnettI am not sure when the right time is; Jesse_Eichar when?
Jesse_Eicharwell we're all here so we can start now
jgarnettoh - email says 10 mins.
moovidayes, but that was me
Jesse_Eicharsure what ever is best for you guys
Jesse_EicharI'm here now and ready to go whenever you are.
jgarnettsounds good; can you guys ping me hard if you need my vote; I am running around helping people
Jesse_Eicharok
moovida:D
Jesse_EicharTopics:
moovidaok for me
jgarnett(mostly with DnD introduced bugs; making walkthrough 2 hard)
Jesse_Eichar2) Steering committee
Jesse_Eicharanything else?
moovidashould be ok
Jesse_Eichark
Jesse_Eichar1) What's up.
Jesse_EicharRemaining priority issues with 1.1:
Jesse_Eichar- Fix for FF3 has broken drag and drop so drag and drop results in multiple resources being added to map
Jesse_Eichar- The OSX jai plugin is not working when deployed.
jgarnettjgarnett: teaching and improving training materials / wiki - improved PDFs will be uploaded later today
Jesse_Eicharjeichar: more demos and going to South Africa.
Jesse_EicharAndrea? mauricio?
moovidamoovida: gt-grassbinary working
mauricioyes
moovidabrought grass under imageio-ext
moovidaWill bring it to trunc at some point
moovidaand operations to all coverage
simbossgo moovida go!!!
moovidacurrently trying to import a sextante module in jGrass
moovidasimboss: :)
moovidasimboss: thanks for the help in Bolsena
moovidamade update sites of JGrass plugins
moovidathey should now work
simbossnp, we'll send you an invoice :-)
moovidamoovida: finished
moovidasimboss: I'll pay in bottles of wine ;)
Jesse_Eichar2)
Jesse_EicharSteering committee.
moovidasecond, Mauricio
Jesse_Eichark
moovidahe wanted to say something?
mauriciook
mauricioabout steering committee
mauricioi am new
moovidaok, then 2
mauricioI f
mauricioi prefer follow your steps
mauricioin the first time
Jesse_EicharI'm not sure what exactly to say about steering committee. I guess I have 2 big things
Jesse_Eichar1. What do you expect from being on the steering committee?
Jesse_Eichar2. I don't want lots of beauracracy
Jesse_Eicharso 1. Start with Andrea
moovidaYeah, I thought about it pretty much in the last time
moovidain fact it is not so important to be on a PSC,
moovidabut more to understand were Udig is going and exactly which resources will work on it
moovidaa PSC gives me the feeling
moovidaof a mroe regular meeting
moovidaregular == a bit more forced
Jesse_Eicharright.
moovidain the last times things seem a bit more lost in space
moovidaseveral things happened and I feel the need to
moovidabetter define the situation
moovidaso PSC for me would mean just put up again
moovidaa more compact development core
moovidaalso because there is really a lot going on in udig
moovidaat the moment
moovida.
moovidaThat is all from my side.
Jesse_Eicharsounds good.
Jesse_Eicharmauricio?
mauricioI think we can transmit that that our community expect about udig
mauriciolocal community (spain, italy etc)
mauricioso udig could do a better use of distributed resources
mauriciowe could collaborate more and better
mauricioabout 2
mauricioI think all people are agree
moovidaagrees for sure
Jesse_EicharI thought was an easy sell :)
Jesse_EicharSo first and most important is to get better communication out there.
mauriciowell I think the geotools community have good communication tools
mauriciowiki to share ideas
mauricioand news
mauriciodecisions
moovidaThe problem perhaps is a bit the fact that in geotools different colors can coexist in the same environment and ml-lists
moovidainstead with udig it is more difficult
Jesse_EicharAlso we have the problem where we have a problem getting the steering committee together.
moovidaI would love to have the JGrass ml-list merged into udigs
moovidabut understand that it would not make much sense
Jesse_EicharThis is the first time and Jody is only partly here.
jgarnettwell I like the idea of the PSC being able to represent uDig in each timezone; and we can handle some topics/decisions on email.
Jesse_EicharThats a start.
Jesse_Eichar2 things that need to be discussed in broad terms:
Jesse_Eichar1. General what the heck is going on.
Jesse_Eichar2. Direction planning
Jesse_EicharI think 1 is the more important. Meetings are good but too hard to rely on.
moovidalikes the 2 points
Jesse_Eicharso I suggest for 1 we suppliment by 2 days a week each of us sends a "Scrum" style email.
Jesse_EicharTopic can be PSE update
Jesse_EicharAnd has 3 sections: What I've done in the last couple days. What I'm going to do in the next. And what is causing problems.
Jesse_Eichar(Just a suggestion)
Jesse_EicharBut it has been very effective in collaborating with my french counter parts here at work
mauriciosound good
Jesse_Eicharandrea jody? comments?
moovidathinking
Jesse_EicharThe point of it is so you can get a very short shot of what is going on and if something is scary, wierd or something else you can start a longer discussion.
moovidaYes, that sounds good
Jesse_EicharI think people like Jody who has lots of people working with him will need to include some of what they are doing.
moovidathis will go to the devel list, right?
jgarnett(aside: your delete point animation is a hit jesse)
Jesse_Eicharyes just the dev list
jgarnettjody too busy for comments; but I can review after.
Jesse_Eicharnp
moovidawhat is PSE for, anyway?
jgarnettwell I asked about a PSC mostly because I need to program *now* and I always have to check with you guys.
jgarnettI wanted you to know you are the gate keeps; and see if we could trade some of your existing responsibility (which you have anyways)
moovidano, I mean the acronym that Jesse wrote
moovidaPSE instead of PSC
jgarnettwith visibility (ie formal acknowledge your role in the project)
Jesse_EicharProject Steering commitee
Jesse_Eicharoh that was a typo
jgarnett(okay I suck; returning to my course)
Jesse_Eicharsorry :P
moovidaI am really glad you proposed it Jody (if you are answering me)
moovida:D np
Jesse_EicharBut I like the question of what is PSC
Jesse_EicharWe should make sure we're all on the same page about it.
Jesse_Eichar1- We have the power to stop other from going crazy and trashing the project.
Jesse_EicharIE I get a big a project and instead of starting a branch I Damage uDig to get it to work for my project
Jesse_EicharYou guys shout at me and tell me to take it to a branch or approach the code base more carefully
Jesse_EicharA second possible responsibility is:
Jesse_EicharWe are all responsible for trying to help maintain and improve the quality of both the project and out private project
Jesse_EicharThat's more or less my view on it. What do you guys think?
moovidaYes, what makes me think is the fact that Jody says we share a certain responsability
moovidaabout udig, which sounds great and good
mauricioagree
moovidabut in fact Jesse_Eichar and jgarnett work at a different level
moovidai feel myself like growing also into the core part slowly but constant
mauriciothe risk is very big for us
mauriciotoday
moovidabut at the time I am an analysis addition
mauriciothe jesse's IE is crystal clear
Jesse_EicharMauricio. is there anything else you'd like to add to my description?
mauricionothing special
moovidayes, that is the reason for which we need some more regular and fixed meetings or emails or reports or whatever. We have to know what is going on really,
moovidawhich is what we just descibed above, I know, just wanted to underline :)
Jesse_EicharI think the important thing for me is Structured communication. I don't have time to always read every long email. That's why I suggested the PSC Update email.
moovidaI completely agree Jesse, same for me here.
Jesse_Eicharcool.
mauriciook
Jesse_EicharI think I'm tapped out.
Jesse_Eicharanything else?
Jesse_Eicharfor 2?
moovidaso to summarize
moovida- there is no official PSC (or yes?)
jgarnettthere is; it consists of Jesse and myself
moovidaok
jgarnett(ie this page http://udig.refractions.net/developers/)
Jesse_EicharOk so Jody shall we vote for an addition to the PSC?
Jesse_Eichar+1 for me for Mauricio and Andrea
moovidajgarnett: http://udig.refractions.net/developers/ doesn't tell a thing about PSC
Jesse_Eicharkick kick to jody
jgarnetthi
Jesse_EicharIt does on the right hand side
jgarnett+1
Jesse_Eicharcool
moovidacool :)
jgarnettthanks
mauricioexcellente
Jesse_Eicharwelcome you days of cool beers and no stress is now over ;)
mauricio(B)
mauricio:)
mauriciook
Jesse_Eichar3) 1.1.0
Jesse_Eicharunless there is anything else.
Jesse_Eicharone,
Jesse_Eichartwo,
Jesse_Eicharthree....
Jesse_Eicharok
Jesse_Eichar3)
Jesse_Eicharas I said before there are 2 critical issue left for me to fix
Jesse_Eichar1. Drop and drop adding multiple layers on a drop.
Jesse_Eichar(update: I think its fixed on my laptop here)
Jesse_Eichardrag and drop that is :P
Jesse_Eichar2. OSX jai install plugin is not working when not in eclipse for some reason.
Jesse_EicharAndrea, Mauricio anything else you'd like to see ?
moovidadid you see that post I sent about layers not getting dirty?
moovidawhen editing
moovidaelse I can summarize quickly
Jesse_EicharI did
Jesse_EicharI can't remember if it was just creating new features or what.
moovidano, I tried it on modify
moovidajust moved a node and clicked on an empty point
moovidathe shape deselects as it should
Jesse_Eicharok I'll quickly look and see if the listener only is active on create and delete.
moovidabut it also seems to commit changes
moovidabut it really doesn't
moovidaok
Jesse_Eicharpoint layer?
moovidatried on polygon
Jesse_Eicharhmm works on points. but you're correct not polygons...
Jesse_Eicharcreate works though
Jesse_Eicharok not for this meeting
moovidayup
Jesse_EicharI will try on that as well but it is less critical as the bug has an obvious work around which is commit often :P
Jesse_Eicharanything else?
moovidanot for me, I'm glad about the prj stuff
moovida:) thanks for that efforth
Jesse_Eicharits still a little buggy for some Coverages but it is better.
mauricioyes, agree
Jesse_Eichar4)
Jesse_EicharEclipse 3.4 party.
moovidathat was jgarnett
Jesse_EicharWe can do for trunk.
Jesse_Eicharno way for 1.1
moovidawould there be real benefits?
Jesse_EicharThe update story is pretty awesome when they get it debugged.
moovidawhat was the aim of point 4?
Jesse_Eichardunno
moovidaask if anyone tried it?
Jesse_Eicharjody suggested it
Jesse_Eichar3.4 came out yesterday
Jesse_EicharWell we'll leave it. The switch when the .1 comes out has worked pretty good so far
jgarnetthi guys; two points; I have a team here that I want to get comfortable with trunk; and with committing etc... so Eclipse 3.4 is a good excuse.
jgarnettthat is it... if we want to wait for 3.4.1 we can do that; however I would like to try (maybe on a branch?) tomorrow.
Jesse_EicharI don't know if that is really the best argument for switching to 3.4... But for trunk I don't care so much as it won't be out til long after 3.4.1 is out
jgarnettyeah this is only for trunk
Jesse_EicharI'm pretty neutral about it
jgarnettand I agree
moovidaok, jgarnett, do you think we could organise that testing parallel to an IRC?
moovidaI would like to assist, so that I get also on trunc. That would give me a start with the new coverage environment
moovidajgarnett: ping
jgarnetthi guys; I need to get back to this ...
Jesse_EicharOk meeting is done.
jgarnettI will organize the time on email and we will be on IRC as a group when we do the work?
jgarnettie whoever is on IRC can help out.
moovida:) let's stop here
jgarnettthanks
moovidayes, please write an email
moovidagreat
moovidathanks for the chat
moovidaciao
mauriciothanks
mauriciosee you
rwhittleseyknows that was a meeting, but that was *the* most activity he's seen in here
Jesse_Eicharhaha. We're spread thin and do most of the talking on email.
Jesse_Eicharby spread thin I mean different time zones.
rwhittleseyyea, I can imagine (no one in their right mind would have a meeting that started at 7 am local time)
Jesse_EicharI prefer meeting in my business day... As do most others

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

SDK Downloads now avaialble

The SDK links for uDig 1.1-RC14 have now been restored.
  • If you are new to Eclipse RCP development please review our SDK Quickstart.
  • If you are an experienced RCP developer the SDK downloads can be used as your "target platform" when making plug-ins for uDig.

uDig 1.1.0 Testing

Welcome to the news blog for the User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS project. This week we are testing "release candidates" as a lead in to our 1.1.0 release.

We have just completed our final blocker - dragging and dropping from Firefox 3 was not working.

If you have a moment to help test; the latest candidate can be found here:
- http://udig.refractions.net/files/downloads/
- http://udig.refractions.net/files/downloads/uDigJun19/

Our acceptance test is going through the following two documents:
-Walkthrough 1
-Walkthrough 2

We are interested in feedback on recent translations (German, Spanish and Basque) and confirmation that the walkthrough documents above work on your platform.