Desktop GIS - the book

Sometimes the "out-of-the-box" GIS applications don't fulfill your need. While writing your own application isn't something to enter into lightly, sometimes it is the best solution.

A custom application might be the answer when you need:

• A simplified interface
• Special functions and tools
• Integration with other tools and data

The key to a successful custom application is to leverage the available toolkits and libraries---in other words let someone else do the hard work for you.

Some open source resources for writing your own applications are:

• Mapnik (C++ or Python)
• MapWinGIS (ActiveX)
• QGIS libraries (C++ or Python)
• uDig Framework (Java)

In a subsequent post we'll take a look at writing a simple application to display some data using Python and the QGIS Python bindings.