GIS

An update to last years “Carving Up GIS StackExchange” now  “Another Look at GIS StackExchange”

Compared to last year’s results, there hasn’t been much movement in the distribution of tags. One thing I did notice, however is that the tag “qgis” leaped to the top of the list. Last year, “arcgis” was the top tag and “qgis” was number three. That said, I wouldn’t jump to too many conclusions. A quick look at the data shows that, in addition to “arcgis”, there are version-specific tags such as “arcgis-10.0” and “arcgis-10.1” as well as product-specific tags like “arcgis-server” so there’s a lot of Esri-centric discussion going on, but that is to be expected. The top ten tags, however, include major components of the OpenGeo Suite (OpenLayers, GeoServer, PostGIS) in addition to QGIS so open-source tools seem to be every bit as active a topic of discussion as do Esri tools.

GIS StackExchange top ten tags:

1. qgis (3910)
2. arcgis (2382)
3. python (2171)
4. arcgis-10.0 (2142)
5. openlayers (1996)
6. postgis (1560)
7. geoserver (1193)
8. arcobjects (1184)
9. raster (1174)
10. arcmap (1113)

Previous post [September 2012 ] http://blog.geomusings.com/2012/09/13/carving-up-gis-stackexchange/

New post [September 2013]

Full Credit to Bill Dollins for the Blog and Analysis. http://blog.geomusings.com/2013/09/12/another-look-at-gis-stackexchange/

GIS SE User Bill Dollins has written an interesting blog post about GIS Stack Exchange and using the GIS SE Tags and the Stack Exchange API V2.1

In Summary a very good overview of the GIS SE site:

(pulling the information for the 100 most “popular” tags, using the StackExchange API)

Grouping of Tags “Not all fell neatly into groups so I made a few judgement calls. For example, I threw tags about the Esri Flex API into “Esri Tools” whereas “Flex” went into “Development/Programming.”

For the full blog post on this please visit http://blog.geomusings.com/2012/09/13/carving-up-gis-stackexchange/

Thanks to Bill for his time and statistical analysis of GIS SE.

Good Question.

There are a number of reason’s why GIS Stack Exchange Moderators close questions. The most likely is because the exact same question has already been answered. Please use the the search (top right) before posting new questions.

Exact Duplicate “This question covers exactly the same ground as earlier questions on this topic; its answers may be merged with another identical question.”

A simple search on the GIS Stack Exchange site will find questions or related questions (most with answers already!) which speeds up the user having to wait for responses.

Off Topic – questions are expected to generally relate to geographic information systems, within the scope defined in the FAQ. http://gis.stackexchange.com/faq

GIS covers a large field of topics – but some can be better answered on other Stack Exchanges sites {{insert link/or list of sites}}.

What to do if you disagree?

• post on meta, asking for clarification and the reasoning behind the closure, provide arguments for why in this particular instance should be okay

• ask again, providing more information, better wording.

NOT Constructive

This question is not a good fit to our Q&A format. We expect answers to generally involve facts, references, or specific expertise; this question will likely solicit opinion, debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion.

GIS SE likes Questions that can be answered – too many variables can delay or even be left unanswerable.

NOT a real Question

It’s difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form.

GIS SE Moderators can debate this one, sometimes it just takes a polite comment/message for the question being asked to contain more content or expand on details.

Too Localized This question is unlikely to ever help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet.

Can be hard for some to to be generic enough for based on the question for a very local or remote location.

Who says a calculator can’t learn natural language ?

So whatever happened to VBA in the Field Calculator? Before 10.0 I grew accustomed to using VBA to leverage all sorts of geometry related interfaces. With 10.0 Esri has replaced VBA with Python and VBScript. I’m not sure why support for .NET wasn’t added, considering that both the C# and VB.NET compilers are part of the standard .NET Framework installation.

The .NET Framework provides modules that can compile source code and turn it into an assembly in memory. Maybe once ArcGIS supports .NET 4.0, I’ll adapt this proof-of-concept to use AvalonEdit. The Visual studio project files can be downloaded here.

    public CompilerResults Compile()
    {
        CodeDomProvider provider = CodeDomProvider.CreateProvider(m_Language);
        var parameters = new CompilerParameters();
        parameters.GenerateInMemory = true;
        parameters.GenerateExecutable = false;
        foreach (string reference in m_References)
        {
            parameters.ReferencedAssemblies.Add(reference);
        }
        //
        var results = provider.CompileAssemblyFromSource(parameters,m_Source);
        if (results.Errors.Count == 0)
        {
            var type = results.CompiledAssembly.GetType(TYPENAME);
            if (type == null)
                throw new Exception("type not found: " + TYPENAME);
            object o = Activator.CreateInstance(type) as IKalkulation;
            if(o == null)
                throw new Exception("unable to createinstance");
            m_kalkulation = o as IKalkulation;
            //
            if (m_kalkulation == null)
                throw new Exception("unable to cast to IKalkulation");
        }
        return results;
    }

That allows us take the dynamically generated class (that implements IKalkulation) and loop through each row in a featurelayer (or standalone table) performing the calculation using C# code entered into a form.

    while ((row = cur.NextRow()) != null)
    {
        i++;
        var obj = this.m_kalkulation.Kalkulate(row);
        row.set_Value(idx,obj);
        row.Store();
        //System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(300); use for testing cancellation
        int newPct = (int)((double)i * 100.0 / (double)total);
        if (newPct != pct)
            worker.ReportProgress(newPct);
        pct = newPct;
        if (this.CancellationPending)
            break;
    }

GIS: Where are the Languages at?

We spend a lot more time debating which general purpose language is better for GIS (C#, VB, Python, Java etc.) than we spend asking what GIS-specific languages should look like. Notice how the language choice is hidden by the compiler – it is an implementation detail. The job of the compiler is to convert human readable formal language expressions into machine language. In addition to general purpose languages like C#, VB.NET, etc., I think GIS deserves its own languages. Sure, we have the shape comparison language, but I think there is room for improvement. It should be possible to write codedom providers for things like rasters, topologies and networks.

Raster Languages

Esri once supported a product called ArcGRID which allowed several expressions (DOCELL, IF, and WHILE) that are no longer supported in Spatial Analyst. It would be possible for Esri to write a CodeDOM provider that would compile these expressions. Otherwise the same approach taken with the proof-of-concept could be adapted to work with pixels instead of IRows.

Topology Languages

Likewise, workstation ARC/INFO allowed one to easily find polylines where two polygons meet that have the same attribute – simply set up two RELATEs based on LPOLY# and RPOLY# and RESELECT the polylines based on expression where left and right attribute are not equal. In ArcMap this requires some tedious code. It seems like Esri could write a CodeDOM provider to allow topology rules to be used as search expressions and not just enforcement of business rules.

Network Languages

For geometric networks custom traceflow solvers are a very powerful tool. Imagine being able to utilize a language that made it easier to recursively build trees based on some network connectivity logic. Traversing the network using IForwardStar is just too tedious. A friendlier language is needed. Either a codeDOM provider or an IQueryable LINQ provider could support languages specifically geared towards network traversal – and would make things like ad hoc custom tracing easier.

Language is a virus. -William S. Burroughs

In other words, if your language doesn’t go viral, it won’t survive. With Stackexchange putting so many different carriers in close contact with one another, a new spatial language seems as inevitable as the next flu season.

What kind of questions can be asked on GIS Stack Exchange? The Geographic Information Systems Stack Exchange is for is for questions concerning geographic information systems and science. We welcome cartographers, database administrators, geographers, programmers, and anyone interested in or using GIS professionally.

Please see other places for help for questions which are off topic here (such as general questions on databases, server setup, web services, programming, etc.).

Although the scope of questions appropriate here is wide, befitting the range of GIS applications please make an initial effort to research the answer before you ask a question. That will help you write a great, focused question that gets excellent answers. Questions that are too basic (meaning the answer is indexed in any number of general internet reference sources designed specifically to find that type of information)will be closed.

GIS SE aim is to create a lasting record of great solutions to questions. Providing references to peer-reviewed literature or links to on-line resources is warmly welcomed. You can also incorporate the work of others under fair use doctrine, which particularly means that you must attribute any text, images, or other material that is not originally yours.

Please look around to see if your question has been asked before. Duplicates are Flagged for Moderation It’s also Okay to ask and answer your own question.

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page. Open-End cannot be completed and makes it harder for people to give correct answers.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain … to me”, then you are OK. (Discussions are welcome in our real time web chat.)

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Further Details can be found at the GIS SE FAQ

Welcome to the New GIS Blog Overflow, a new additional to GIS Stack Exchange Community

New content will be coming soon from community members from the GIS Stack Exchange.

Popular & reoccurring topics on GIS.SE, events related to GIS and the GIS.SE community with a random collection of posts by different authors will give a good wide cross-section of articles.

• Popular questions will be also expanded.
• Commercial and Open Source related GIS posts (includes beta software) are welcomed.
• Community GIS News and Events will also be included

http://meta.gis.stackexchange.com/questions/591/gis-stackexchange-blog