Geospatial - GIS GvSIG Qgis

Is Java Worth Learning?

Beyond OpenOffice, Vuze, Woopra, or the applets that are deployed in some web pages, is very positioned in mobile systems, TV, GPS, ATMs, business programs and many of the pages that we surf daily are running on Java.

The following graph shows how Java technology has a sustainably marked domain from 2006 to 2011 compared to C # .net, php and Ruby, possibly derived from the job offers.

StatisticsJava

In the case of the geospatial environment, C ++ and Java are the two great worlds in which Open Source applications are built; The following table summarizes something, because of the topic of the post I focus on expanding on Java applications but at a glance (which it is not), from the Java side it outperforms C ++ in an 15 to 10 relationship.

GIS Applications in C ++

GIS Applications in Java

At the desktop level

Quantum GIS. The most implemented in the Anglo-Saxon environment, generally accompanied by Grass.
GRASS. The oldest OpenSource system, with priority in raster.
Saga. Born in Germany, with a prioritized focus on research.
Ilwis. Initiative that was born in Holland, and although it comes from the mid-eighties, its development under community integration is poor.

gvSIG. Probably the most widely distributed OpenSource application in the Hispanic environment, and perhaps the one with a more aggressive internationalization vision. To date, more than 100 of my articles point to this tool.
SEXTANT. Promoted by the University of Extremadura, a great complement to gvSIG, although there are libraries for OpenJump, Kosmo and it even interacts with GRASS.
UDig. This is a neat, if less distributed development with high potential, created by the same PostGIS company, GeoServer and Geotools.
Kosmo. I work from OpenJump, born in Spain.
OpenJump. Legacy of a Canadian initiative called Jump, which had been discontinued.
CatMDEdit. This is a metadata editor.

At the server level

MapServer. Very widespread, although with a slower progress in development and integration than Geoserver.
MapGuide OS. Supported by AutoDesk, very robust.

GeoServer. It may be the most widely used data server.
GeoNetwork. It is a metadast catalog manager, ideal for geoportal or clearinghouse.
Degree. Initiative born at the University of Bonn, Germany, with capacities equivalent to GeoServer.

At the library level

GEOS
PROJ4
FDO
GDAL / OGR

Geotools
GeoAPI
Baltik
JTS
WKBj4

Java-course Of the previous ones, at least 5 of those developed in Java appear as projects of the foundation OSGeo, some in incubation, in search of sustainability and complementarity.

It would be interesting to have a round table of programming experts to talk about why they prefer or hate Java, it would possibly be discussed whether or not Pointers make the process simple or not, if the multithreading capacity would have an advantage over other languages if there is no virtual machine, if security is relative ; but on one thing they would all agree:

The fact of being cross-platform, since the applications can run on Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac (ignoring the recent stubbornness of Steve Jobs). This makes it attractive for applications with a global scope, where users will use different operating systems and browsers, solving almost everything with the famous Virtual Machine that apart from performing multithreaded tasks, solves the portability problem and provides a secure filtering between the client and server.

Also the fact of being Open Source is an aspect to be valued, although Oracle acquired SUN (Java developer), and that some doubts of what can happen in the long term with MySQL (Of GPL license), almost nobody questions the future Of the Java language.

Possibly what the Green Teen started as a failed project to run on televisions and VHS no longer resembles what Java has achieved in positioning, although it does in objectives. To date, there are 3 Java applications:

Java products