Location and touch in your next GIS
Around the tubes rumors have surfaced regarding the inclusion of CoreLocation and Touch SDKs in the next desktop version of the MacOS X, AKA Snow Leopard. As a Mac fan I am pretty excited about in of these types of rumors, since they promise a great deal to those folks who are making the next round of GIS applications. Whether we are talking about a Mac only app like Cartographica or multi platform apps like QGIS or uDig there is the chance for great interface and backend changes. Perhaps even more impressive in Snow Leopard is the inclusion of OpenCL, which will allow developers to take advantage of the raw power of GPUs when they aren’t being used for drawing graphics. Imagine running an analysis on a 64bit system with multiple CPU cores AND your multiple GPU cores…blazing fast GIS baby. The question is how long will it take Microsoft to implement these features in Windows so that we can see them in the mainstream GIS desktop apps.
2 Replies to “Location and touch in your next GIS”
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Jesse,
these features are part of Windows 7 – I was thinking today after reading the Apple (rumor) announcement that Snow Leopard is becoming more and more like Windows 7 every day.
Windows 7 will feature a Location API (doesn’l sound as fancy as CoreLocation – I have to admit)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd317751(VS.85).aspx
and a Sensor API – which will be very interesting in building SensorWebs as well as integrating field sensors into GIS applications
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd318953(VS.85).aspx
Windows7 also features MutliTouch support. I am not sure where OpenCL gives the MacOS platform an advantage as it is open specification and as such can be supported on the Microsoft platform as well. Although I haven’t read anything about a firm commitment from MS about that.
And with a little bit of luck Windows 7 might even be released sooner than the Mac OS. 😉
Thomas
Great point, I did phrase it poorly to sound as if these were MacOS X only directions. We talked a little bit about the Windows 7 APIs when they first came out and I have to admit to being a fan of running on the beta. Really I should be talking more about the developers on these systems and how they will implement the APIs. Since we tend to think of the Mac space as being owned by smaller more focused apps I tend to think of the developers of having an easier job of re-envisioning their app and rewriting their code to support the newest platform. Windows developers tend to be more cautious, looking to backwards compatibility and not as given to taking advantage of the cutting edge. I admit if I were maintaining an app that sat on the OS that owns the VAST majority of the market I would code to the majority of users.
Humorously, the Mac tendency to actually leave users behind (move to MacOS X, recent iLife release not fully supporting PowerPC systems) has made them (us) ready to buy new hardware or operating system to gain access to the great new features that we are talking about. OpenCL is a great example of the hardware side of this since it now makes buying a Quadro over a GeForce more interesting to just increase the performance of a system. And please tell me someone is going to port either Windows or Mac to the cell processor or I will be looking to Linux to take advantage of the insane processing power that OpenCL and a PS3 would offer (or so we have been led to believe).
I am excited about location and touch on any platform and I see the next year or two on the desktop mirroring the last year in location-based mobile and the last three years on the geoweb. But I have to admit that my cult of Mac slips out occasionally.