Wednesday, October 15, 2008

uDig 1.1.0 Released

We are pleased to announce the release of uDig 1.1.0. This release is available for Linux, OSX, and Windows directly from our downloads page.

New capabilities of uDig 1.1.0 include:

  • Enhance editing, including a complete framework to support the creation of new tools

  • Enhanced thematic styling; thanks to the ColorBrewer project for making some amazing palettes

  • Table View supporting the use of Common Query Language

  • A reshape operator that using CQL expressions to process features in an ad-hoc manner

  • Creation of new feature types for PostGIS and shapefile

  • Introduction of a Tasks based workflow, making use of data validation

  • Mac OS/X support

The original development of uDIG in 2004 was supported in part by Canada's GeoConnections / GeoInnovations program. Development of this second release has been made possible by the uDIG open source community, with special thanks to AxiosCamp2CampHydrologis and Refractions. We would also like to thank our email list for the kind testing and encouragement leading up to this release.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

IRC Logs October 9th

jgarnett: morning
jgarnett: I belive jesse is on holiday this week
jgarnett: I sent an email reminder out a few minuets ago
mauricio: hello
jgarnett: along with some agenda topics
jgarnett has changed the topic to: 0) what is up 1) 1.1.0 2) trunk 3) build
jgarnett: mauricio do you have anything for the agenda?
mauricio: presicion tools
jgarnett: I would love to have an update from FOSS4G; but it seems they are all still sleeping.
jgarnett has changed the topic to: 0) what is up 1) 1.1.0 2) trunk 3) build 4) presicion tools
jgarnett: emily_g ?
emily_g: good morning
jgarnett: right.
jgarnett: okay let us move ...
jgarnett: 0) what is up
jgarnett: jgarnett - I am rather fried; I have been trying to do small tasks like clean up catalog interfaces and remove test cases from our plugins.
emily_g: I've integrated the tiled rendering system. It can be used by setting the preference in the rendering preference page
jgarnett: what have you guys been up to?
mauricio: Paralell tools and release es.axios.extensionsrc9
mauricio: parallels
emily_g: jgarnett - I wanted to talk about Map Blackboard serialization but if jesse is away maybe I should wait until next week?
mauricio: there is any news about 1.1
mauricio: any posible date ?
jgarnett: Jesse finished it
jgarnett: and uploaded it here (and told me I could anounce it)
mauricio: good
jgarnett: http://udig.refractions.net/files/downloads/uDig11/
jgarnett: but as you can see the upload failed 1/2 way
jgarnett: so we need him to upload again.
mauricio: ok
jgarnett: The other thing we could do; since the 1.1.0 "tag" seems finished; is to juggle svn around so 1.1.x has all the changes made to the 1.1.0 tag.
jgarnett: it may be quickest just to "copy" 1.1.0 to 1.1.x - and then update all the version numbers again.
jgarnett: I have reports of some layer refresh problems interrupting a customers RCP app.
jgarnett: So we may need a developer to dive in there and apply some fixes sometime this month.
jgarnett: If that is the case I would expect a 1.1.1 at the end of the month.
jgarnett: I assume we would do "dot" releases every month as long as teams are working against the 1.1.x series.
jgarnett: mauricio you have teams working on 1.1.x right?
mauricio: yes
mauricio: the last versions of our plugins are in 1.1.x
jgarnett: Refractions has one project working against 1.1.x right now; but that is our only exposure.
jgarnett: 1.1.x is realy going to lean on you and your team; for monthly releases etc.
jgarnett: (even right now I am explaining to Ugo Taddei that I have no developers available to make him an SDK release of trunk)
jgarnett: shall we move on?
jgarnett: 2) trunk
jgarnett: It feels as if a lot is happening ... with relatively little communication.
jgarnett: I cannot always keep track of what the developers on the udig-devel list are working on.
emily_g: what would you like to see?
jgarnett: mauricio you are pretty clear what we are up to on trunk on this end?
mauricio: actualy no
jgarnett: emily_g I think we have been okay with communication; I am not always sure what the developers on the email list (like Jurgen Jacob or Ugo Taddei) are doing.
jgarnett: we are making the uDig rendering system "fast"
jgarnett: that is we are burning memory (and now disk) to make the rendering experience better.
jgarnett: Graham davis has implemented a client for WMSC (ie GeoWebCache or TileServer)
jgarnett: and that can be used as a fast alternative to WMS
emily_g: can we send an email to the list and ask people who are working on trunk to summarize what they've been doing?
jgarnett: just this week Graham started making use of local disk to cache tiles.
jgarnett: emily_g - that is a good idea.
jgarnett: emily_g do you want to describe what you are doing?
emily_g: I've been doing the tiled rendering stuff - rendering data in tiles
emily_g: and saving these tiles so when you pan around you don't have to rerender them
jgarnett: so as you pan around it is smooth; no flashes of "white" as with the current system you are used to on uDig 1.1.0
emily_g: next I"m looking into trying to make the panning smoother
jgarnett: we have a couple problems left:
jgarnett: - mapgraphics need to smarten up about the fact there are tiles
jgarnett: - not sure what else/
emily_g: mapgraphics is the main issue I know about at the moment
jgarnett: I am trying to do a bit of technical debt; the catalog api for example; and cleaning up factories that are not used.
jgarnett: mauricio have you tried out trunk very much?
mauricio: we compile with trunk 1 month ago
mauricio: and we test udig
mauricio: but when you began with the refactoring
mauricio: I prefered to wait
jgarnett: the refactoring?
mauricio: yes
jgarnett: the rendering stuff does not change any api
mauricio: project
mauricio: rendering
mauricio: etc
emily_g: we changed the render metrics api
emily_g: a while ago
emily_g: and made a few other changes to some of the apis to get the tiled stuff going
jgarnett: right - I had forgotten. It is now closer to the uDig 0.9 origional.
jgarnett: emily_g how much of that will effect people; should we maintain an update guide?
jgarnett: (the main difference for me is geotools)
emily_g: the rendering metrics changed quite a bit
emily_g: the other stuff probably doesn't matter
emily_g: I think we have a wiki page describing the update
mauricio: that could be good
mauricio: some times i am not sure
mauricio: about if is convenient invest effort to compile with trunk
jgarnett: well I cannot do too much to encourage you
jgarnett: short of deleting 1.1.x :-P
jgarnett: but when you are ready; trunk will be an improved experience.
mauricio: :)
mauricio: ok
jgarnett: 3 build
jgarnett: It sounds like Jesse is all for moving to Eclipse 3.4.1
jgarnett: and Ugo already made the transition and did not talk to us about it ...
jgarnett: ... so what is involved? Making another "Extras"?
jgarnett: It sounds like uDig ran into some trouble with the "nls" plugins we included with extras - I am not sure what to do about that.
jgarnett: I would like to ask Moovida since he made them.
jgarnett: Emily do you think we could check with our customer about upgrading? And then get back to the list ...
emily_g: we can definitely ask
lotu [n=lotu@c-98-218-10-165.hsd1.md.comcast.net] entered the room.
jgarnett: there are some questions about headless build; and a rant about scala
lotu: yes there are
lotu is now known as hbullen2
jgarnett: not sure I care to comment much. We lack anyone to try headless builds; or making an SDK release.
jgarnett: welcome :-) You caught the tail end of the meeting...
jgarnett: we are still on the subject of "build"
hbullen2: yes I get up too late
jgarnett: np. Most of your questions are for Jesse.
hbullen2: k
jgarnett: I just wanted to be clear that I was not being rude to you on this subject; I simply do not know the answers - having not tried headless build myself.
hbullen2: oh I guess that is understandable
hbullen2: I actually got one working late yesterday
hbullen2: I had to edit one of the scala files though to get a single file
jgarnett: interesting
jgarnett: what platform are you on?
jgarnett: (or what was the edit; I was wondering why Jesse did not encounter the problem you were seeing)
jgarnett: also: if I could ask a favour - would it be possible for you to upload an SDK based on trunk? Even just at the end of each month?
hbullen2: I was on linux, and the SDK has run on both windows and linux so far.
hbullen2: Sure where would be a good place to put it?
jgarnett: the udig "files/downloads" directory
jgarnett: it is a webdav folder and your svn credentials should work.
jgarnett: http://udig.refractions.net/files/downloads/
hbullen2: okay that works for me
jgarnett: and if you can kindly just put the file in the list; jesse keeps hiding things in folders (so they do not appear on the website). I want them to appear on the website :-)
jgarnett: (it is important to release early and release often)
jgarnett: that would be *so* cool.
hbullen2: by list you mean the ???
dassouki [n=a_d@fctnnbsc15w-156034067001.nb.aliant.net] entered the room.
dassouki: jgarnett: a small postgis question if u have time :D
hbullen2: go for it jgarnett I have some calls to make
jgarnett: let us do our last agenda topic
jgarnett: and then postgis question?
jgarnett: 4) precision tools
jgarnett: mauricio this one is yours.
mauricio: ok
dassouki: sounds good :D
mauricio: well
jgarnett: Are you referring to changing the JTS percision settings?
mauricio: it is abou
mauricio: t
mauricio: the interactions
mauricio: required for tools
mauricio: to add presicion when you are drawing
mauricio: now you can use the tools to do sketch
mauricio: but our users are asking
mauricio: "how can introduce coord, length, etc"
mauricio: have you some similar requirement
mauricio: ?
jgarnett: I am trying to understand
jgarnett: coord, length etc?
mauricio: :)
jgarnett: what do you mean?
jgarnett: perhaps if you could tell me a story; what the user would do and click.
mauricio: ok
jgarnett: are you thinking of how to type that up now? Or should we take this to email...
mauricio: how can a user draw a linestring in a precision position of word
jgarnett: one again I am not sure
jgarnett: in my experience people do not draw very often
jgarnett: sometimes they "trace" against a raster
jgarnett: or they "snap" to other layers
emily_g: do you want to be able to round off all the coordinates in your geometry to 2 decimal places instead of default of double precision?
jgarnett: perhaps we are having trouble with the "precision" aspect of your question
jgarnett: do you want to let people select a point; and type in exactly the coordinates?
mauricio: maybe
jgarnett: the usual answer is to "zoom in"
jgarnett: and then read the coordinates in the bottom of the screen.
hbullen2: That might be nice, for some people I know
jgarnett: JTS has a concept of percision (and we could tract how "accurate" your data is allowed to be)
jgarnett: and then as you zoom in we could replace a "point"
jgarnett: with a square of the correct size
jgarnett: so people coudl *see* the percision they are working with.
hbullen2: We told them to edit the point with the default feature editor but they didn't like that alot
jgarnett: so what you have is a story of something your customer woudl like to do...
jgarnett: .. snapping (to other features or to grid) is one way to help
jgarnett: but I think you should talk to your users and see what they expect.
jgarnett: are they trying to enter in data from like an onsite measurements or something?
mauricio: yes
mib_qm8pbk left the room (quit: "http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client").
jgarnett: are they wanting to do "data entry"
jgarnett: or are they wanting to use the mouse?
hbullen2: they pretty much had a list of airports and wanted to get an intern to edit them. So they wanted it to be very easy, thats all.
jgarnett: (and it is line data rather than points?)
simboss [i=4f1b0e8b@gateway/web/ajax/mibbit.com/x-f7e1e4ff993fcde7] entered the room.
mauricio: is important introduce points coord
mauricio: but too
mauricio: the length of line string
mauricio: segments
mauricio: distance betwen linestrings
jgarnett: well I can think of all sorts of creative ways to do it :
jgarnett: -)
jgarnett: here is an example...
jgarnett: 1. make a tool.
jgarnett: 2. and a view
mauricio: god
mauricio: good
jgarnett: 3. allow people to enter a coordinate in the view
jgarnett: 4. as they use the tool they can use the middle mouse button to change the length of their line
jgarnett: (you can report that in the view; or in a "bubble" on the screen next to the line)
jgarnett: 5. as they move the pointer the line (of the length mentioned above) will change direction (barring)
jgarnett: 6. The user can then click to "Accept"
jgarnett: 7. and continue ...
mauricio: ok that was my first idea
jgarnett: that should result in a pretty clear user expereince. But until you build it and try it ... you do not know if your user would like it.
jgarnett: but you should really know up front what "percision" your users would like to work in; have them enter that into the view; and make sure they are zoomed in enough for tis to actually work.
jgarnett: ---
jgarnett: the "Sqaure" idea is actually better (since it communicates the limits of what JTS math can do ...)
jgarnett: another "simple" thing to do is ..;
jgarnett: 1. move the pointer as per normal
jgarnett: 2. allow a key board modifier that when held; moves the pointer at 1/2 speed
jgarnett: and has a bubble showing the percision.
jgarnett: 3. have seperate key modifier for horizontal; and virticle
jgarnett: (so people can worry about one at a time)
jgarnett: 4. use the buble to show the actual value.
jgarnett: so they woudl need to choose if they are playing with "length"
jgarnett: or with "location"
jgarnett: but yeah try out some stuff; or talk to your customer.
jgarnett: uDig will kind of let you build anything.
mauricio: ok we are working in some spike to try the idea
jgarnett: can we wrap up the meeting?
mauricio: that is ok for me
jgarnett: dassouki; you had a postgis question
jgarnett: (I will post the logs now)