I think it may be time for me to take the plunge... I was visiting with a GeoTools developer a couple of days ago and I realized my input on GeoTools is always from an outside perspective, and not from an inside perspective. This is a problem. Let me explain why:
I get the impression from Frank Wammerdam and others at the OSGeo that GeoTools has been set up as the "defacto" or maybe even "official" library of shared GIS software components for Java. This is a very admirable goal. However, in my most humble opinion I think there are some serious challenges to more widespread adoption of GeoTools as this type of library. It doesn't seem very fair for me to make this criticism from the outside, if I make no effort to fix the problems I believe exist. Nor does it do me much good to carry the flag of collaboration if I'm not making a serious effort to support the very vehicle set up by the OSGeo to make that collaboration possible. I would like to become an actual contributor to GeoTools in an effort to rectify this situation. I'm not up to becoming a Maven expert just yet, and I don't even think I want to be a committer at this point. I just want to try making some small contributions. This will allow me to get an inside perspective on the GeoTools development process, will help me to identify what works, and will help me to identify what seems to be broken or a major obstacle to greater adoption of the library. I hope this will not be percieved as hostile or aggressive, but as a sincere effort to make GeoTools more popular and accepted among FOSS projects like OpenJUMP. Having said that, I must warn you that I am not necessarily a standard zealot, nor am I passionate about extreme speed and conciseness at the cost of all else. My main goals as a programmer are practicality, simplicity, and understandable code. I'd like to start my (possible) journey as a GeoTools contributor with a couple of questions: [1] Is there a list of GeoTools modules in need of some help? I'd rather not start a new module, although I have about 20 things I could probably port to GeoTools, and I don't want to get in over my head. I'd also prefer something that was fairly loosely coupled, so I could use the work in OpenJUMP. I checked this page: http://geotools.codehaus.org/How+to+Help but "tasks for new developers" and "unassigned issues and tasks" sections of the page appear to be broken. Is there another place to view these lists? Basically, I need a module I can contribute to. (Here is a chance to get some help scratching your itch!) [2] Must I really sign up for CodeHaus to be a GeoTools contributor? :] [3] It seems that the page that exports the Developer manual in PDF is busted. It starts, but never moves past 0% complete: http://geotools.codehaus.org/ Is there another place to get a PDF copy of the developers manual? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save $100. Use priority code J8TL2D2. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com/javaone _______________________________________________ Geotools-devel mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/geotools-devel
