[ gpsdrive ] External program interfacing with gpsdrive

[Hamish]

Stan:
> Not sure how that could be done with pgrouting, as far as I
> can tell it's a set of routines for postgis.

another option is the stand-alone DGlib C library which GRASS GIS uses
for its network routing modules.
  http://grass.osgeo.org/dglib/
  http://grass.osgeo.org/wiki/Vector_network_analysis
  http://grass.ibiblio.org/grass64/manuals/html64_user/v.net.path.html

someone on this list has argued that it did not support 64-bit. AFAIK
that is untrue. And if it is a problem I think it could be quickly fixed.


In the past as a quick and dirty prototype I had suggested using the
d.path module in GRASS to calculate and render the shortest path, then
update (ie overwrite) gpsdrive tiles every 10sec or so via the
d.out.gpsdrive GIS module.
  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.linux.gps/2645/
  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.linux.gps/3245/
  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gis.grass.user/10353

I have not used GpsDrive + Mapnik and OSM much so it is hard for me to
say if that data source is suitable for the task. But it would be
very very cool.


> Could be something built in to gpsdrive but that would be a
> lot of work.

whenever possible we should aim to "subcontract"/"delegate" work to
externally developed support libraries. Our limited manpower means we
can't spend too much effort reinventing wheels.


> ...got it, gdal is being used at the mo and looks good,
> couple of questions:
> Is gdal the planed route for database access, its not a
> stepping stone to something else?

I don't know about how GDAL is used for DB access, but IMO it is the
powerhouse which should be used for reading geospatial maps. It, along
with PROJ.4, is really /the/ keystone open source GIS library and
support software.

It is my long term hope that gpsdrive will use GDAL/OGR to create tiles
on the fly from any supported geocoded raster or vector GIS data format.


> the postgis database a confusing thing to set up and get running.

enter zero-config SQLite, but try not to import an industrial strength
worldwide PostGIS database into it!



Hamish