Michael,
On 9 May 2006, at 13:56, Michael Cartwright wrote:
> Hello All,
>
> Just to let you know that the new poll is up. Last weeks poll
> surprised us with ESRI dominating the results. For those of you
> who choose “other” as your GIS would you please indicate what you
> use by adding a quick post to this section of the forum?
posting back onto GIS-UK because it might be relevant, I have not
used GIS for about 3 years, being happiest and fastest with ArcGIS
and having the longest experience with MapInfo. I now work
independently (can't afford ArcGIS), and on a Mac, and have given
GRASS a go - for someone used to point and click GIS, GRASS' user
interface feels surprisingly clunky and not easy to use for the kind
of work I do (digital cartography and geodemographic analysis) - I
can't even work out how to display a layer once I've opened it. Can
anyone out there recommend a GRASS course?
(I've also tried the new open source JUMP - Java Universal Mapping
Platform) and it looks promising if unstable).
As for Google Earth, I think the detail of the aerial photography in
some areas allows demographic researchers to get interesting
qualitative information on an area. However, the quality of the other
layers leaves a lot to be desired, especially when viewed in
conjunction with the aerial photos, which themselves vary in quality
from brilliant to useless.
(as an example, my background is in transport, the roads dataset is
mostly there but there are so many errors in the rail one it is
almost unusable. Fortunately for that I can get data from other
sources, but I do wonder about some of the data on services and
amenities as a result)
--
Anzir Boodoo MRes MILT Aff. IRO
transcience, 72 Staplehurst, BRACKNELL RG12 8DD
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