On Tue, 26 Nov 2002 brook@biology.nmsu.edu wrote:

> Alistair Crooks writes:
>  > On Tue, Nov 12, 2002 at 01:03:08AM +1030, wulf@ping.net.au wrote:
>  > > I've been porting several GIS applications such as proj4, shapelibs, mapserv,
>  > > gpsd etc with several others to follow and hence would like to create
>  > > a new category "pkgsrc/gis" that accommodate this type of application - see
>  > > http://www.freegis.org for more information on GIS.
>  > > 
>  > > Are there any objections in creating this new category? 
>  > 
>  > Usually we just put them into the bucket categories - misc, devel - until we
>  > get a critical mass for a new category - I'd encourage you to do the same here.
> 
> I would like to suggest that indeed "gis" would be a valuable new
> category.  I, for example, have long wanted one and have made some
> packages for my own use that would fit into such a category.  There is
> a rather large amount of software relating to GIS, much of which is
> organized at www.freegis.org.  Because there is a useful reference
> site it would be relatively easy to track down the critical mass.
> 
> Perhaps creating the category and starting to fill it would serve as a
> catalyst and would enable NetBSD to be used as a general GIS platform.
> That would be a very valuable thing, actually.

Furthermore, it would be very helpful for sysadmins of shops that run,
say, Solaris and Irix for their GIS needs; especially given the recent
announcement of a hopefully soon-to-be-official patch to bootstrap pkgsrc
on Irix.  While shops like this will typically use big packages like
Landmark Openworks, Schlumberger GeoQuest, and so on, having more stuff
available in pkgsrc (without having to poke through pkgsrc/misc) will be
very good.


-- 
David Griffith
dgriffi@cs.csubak.edu