[FWTools] OpenEV/FWTools Add-ons

[Matt Wilkie]

Hi Nate, welcome to the world of gdal :)

I can't speak to the developer side of integrating C++ and friends with 
openev but I'm sure you'll find a receptive and helpful audience here 
and on gdal-dev (http://lists.maptools.org/pipermail/gdal-dev/). 
Gdal-dev will be best for code collaboration and here or openev for end 
user type discussion. Most of the talk on fwtools revolves around how to 
use the utilities.

The easiest way to get your hands on GRASS in a Windows environment is 
via QGIS (http://www.qgis.org/). It's pretty much click and go. For 
people who have experience with ESRI and Mapinfo it can take some 
practice to get used to the grass data models though. While not *quite* 
ready for python based plugin development, the C++ side is up and going. 
Qgis is more focussed on developing vector than raster tools, so far.

Since your work is primarily remote sensing some time spent with OSSIM 
http://www.ossim.org/ might be fruitful. Ossim doesn't have as an 
extensive community as does gdal/openev/fwtools but they've been around 
for awhile and don't seem to be going away. There are some pretty 
sophisticated tools in there.

SAGA GIS (http://www.saga-gis.uni-goettingen.de/html/index.php) has the 
most well rounded raster handling of the open source projects I'm 
familiar with. Though it doesn't get into things like pan-sharpen fusion 
and correcting for satellite sensor limitations like ossim does (the 
last time I looked anyway).

Not being a developer I can't say for sure, but I think all of these 
projects have avenues for you to plugin in your own algorithms. So, it's 
a feast of plenty. Enjoy :)

cheers,

-- 
matt wilkie
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