GIS wise, my next steps will probably be:
1) fixing the code so it actually works on all shape files. Should I also take into account the difference between big- and little-endian platforms here?
2) adding a dbf file reader/writer - for this I hope I may use Colin's reader and combine it maybe with an existing reader/writer (for squeak, published in 1998 by Antonio d'Avino) I have been using for years now. 
3) creating a ShapeViewer that is capable of handling several shapefiles at the same time, and more than one view for each shapefile, so interesting thematic overlays can be made. Scaling, zooming in and maybe some attribute-editing, should be possible. The ShapeViewer should have good postscript support, so nice maps can be printed. BTW do we have some generic objects in Squeak for map or graph legends (translating different types of attributes - boolean, categorical, numeric - into coloring etc)?
4) add handling of rastermaps (read from ASCIIGRID files, as a start) to the ShapeViewer. The result starts to resemble basic ArcView, and is maybe part of what Frank is aiming at with WikiMapper?

I have no idea how long it will take me to realize these goals... Later, when an object-oriented GIS in Squeak is in place, it might be interesting to add real geo-processing algorithms, and more extensive spatial editing.

For the long term, the shape format is not a particularly good basis for an extensive GIS, as it lacks topology. We should probably aim at a simple, generic object-based GIS, maybe along the lines of ESRI's ArcGIS approach (the successor of ArcView and Arc/Info). I have VW code that reads (converted) Arc/Info data, that might be useful. But it might be a good idea to try to learn a bit from the experiences in ArcGIS and other object-oriented GIS first.

Apart from developing a Squeak GIS, there's also the possibility of using Squeak in commonly used GIS, as a scripting language. ArcView has the scripting language Avenue, a bit like smalltalk; ArcGIS will use Python as a scripting language (a Python interpreter can also be embedded within ArcView). I have no idea what it would take to enable Squeak to be used there...it looks like it needs to be COM compliant though.


Hans

> >>> "Baveco, Hans" 04/23/04 11:17 >>> 
> 
> I just put a small package on SqueakMap, to read and view GIS 
> data in ESRI shapefile format (the format used by ESRI's 
> ArcView program). 
> It adds some basic functionality required to improve Squeak's 
> geo-processing abilities, which are currently a bit 
> underdeveloped (Squeak could be made into a perfect platform 
> for GIS work!). 

Fantastic! I've just started investigating/learning about GIS stuff for my 
role-playing group's mapping requirements, myself! 

What else are you planning on doing, GIS-wise? 

For my purposes, I'm going to try bring together Wiki concepts with GIS. I'm 
still barely at the requirements gathering stage as yet (detailed on 
http://roke.angband.za.org/frank/WikiMapper). 

frank