Using Perl with ESRI ArcGIS? Or VB foolishness?

[dnrg]

I'm getting into GIS, using ESRI's ArcGIS product in particular. I'd
use the GPL'ed GRASS instead, but few employers seem to have ever
heard of it; ESRI, for better or worse, seems to have a monopoly on
GIS and they're in bed with Microsoft).

Anyway, VB seems to be the standard language used to customize and
extend ArcGIS; a step up from its Avenue programming language (at
least VB can be used to code other things), but I'm not all that happy
about having to learn VB to be successful as a GIS person.

Anyone here use Perl with ESRI products? Is it possible? Effective?
Productive?Pleasant? Or is it just the wrong tool for the job?

Unfortunately, I don't know C++ or Java (two other options,
apparently, for extending and customizing ArcGIS apps), but perhaps
now is the time to learn one or the other.

For those who eschew VB as a programming language for us with ArcGIS,
which is better / easier to learn / more useful / whatever adjective
that suits you as a GIS professional in your work, should I go with
C++ or Java or something else?

Thank you muchly.

- Dana

 

[qu1kb1rd]

Any GIS folk in da house?

Yep. Here's my two cents....

You are right to look elsewhere for GIS programming tools. If it makes
you feel any better, I have been happily GIS programming for a couple
years and only had to use VB once, and that was with MapInfo, not
ESRI. I am not particularly a fan of ESRI products and the last few
years I've used Linux for everything I do, so ESRI's not really even
much of an option for me. Well I guess the java stuff might do ok on
linux. But we're talking Perl, not Java right?

Here's some resources for doing GIS without the monopoly:

GRASS GIS www.baylor.edu/grass -- learn to use it. Once installed,
very easy to wrap perl around it. We created a mapserver with just
perl and GRASS5.

MAPSERVER from University of Minnnesota. This is simply outstanding
open source ware. We use this for all kinds of things. Perl Mapscript
will build with it. You'll really like that, I'd bet.

SHAPELIB & GDAL www.remotesensing.org -- THE place for open source GIS
tools. Frank Warmerdam is my hero. We have gotten more value out of
shapelib than just about anything. GDAL is really robust for raster
stuff. Once again, really easy to wrap perl around.

postGIS www.postgis.org -- this project has more potential than
anything. I'm currently doing some R&D with postGIS and it really is
nice. Wait til they get the GEOS lib built into it for strong spatial
analysis tools. Once again plays well with perl.

All of these tools really work well together too, as a bonus.
Get yourself an apache server and a DB server, you can rock the
enterprise with these kinds of tools.
You really can do all kinds of GIS work without either M$ or ESRI if
you're resourceful and willing to learn new things. It turns out to be
a lot easier in the end. Downloading and compiling these kinds of
software is much easier than trying to convince your boss to spend
tens of thousands of dollrs on software that ain't all that much
better than the free stuff.


Good Luck!!


D. Marino
DigitalGlobe, Inc.