Quantum GIS

TS: Welcome to this the sixth in our series of QGIS developer and user interviews! Can you start by giving us a short introduction to yourself? Whats your real name, your pets name, where do you live & study etc ...

My name is Martin Dobias, I live in Trencin, Slovak Republic. This time I'm studying second year informatics at faculty of mathematics and physics at Charles University in Prague (in Czech Republic). I'm 20 years old guy, I haven't any pets ... I had hamster and fish long time ago. I like hanging out, juggling, doing some sport, hiking, hitchhiking, camping, travelling.

TS: When did you first become aware of QGIS and what made you interested to start developing stuff for QGIS?

Now I have a job where I should build a small map server and also I have to make a bigger software project (for school), so I decided with my supervisor not to start with a new GIS software but help to improve a working one

TS: So how did you find out about qgis? through your supervisor? Google?

I have found this project on freegis.org pages when I was browsing software where can I browse my shapefiles. Independently my supervisor (or advisor? don't know what's better term) said that he uses QGIS a bit, but he misses many features.

TS: What kind of features are you interested in working on? Which features do you think are most in need of attention?

I'd like to add some features concerning routing and navigation. Also making program to be easy to use is very important. So far I can't say much here because I don't know which all features are already implemented. Maybe I will be able to answer this question better after few days :) [I am also interested in] looking into 0.7 specification: e.g. projections, measuring distances, areas.

TS: Could you explain a bit more what ideas you have in mind for routing and navigation? Did you work on this theoretical area before?

With this I mean creating tools with which you can just enter two points on your map and you will get exact route how you should travel also following restrictions like one-way streets, turn prohibition etc. Then, with connected GPS it should show you when to turn. Also it has to be able to optimize routing for time, distance, fuel consumption.

JO: Do you already have information about routing algorithms or is that new terrain? Because routing isn't trivial, see the traveling salesman problem.

I worked only with basic navigation with GPS, most interesting project was commercial application BlueSky GPS (for Symbian OS): http://www.blueskygps.com/ But routing like this one is new for me. Some easy routing algorithms are known to me, so we will see what can I do :)

TS: Where do you see this deployed? QGIS on PocketPC? Palmos?

I think first it should work on PC, then I'd like to make a Java application for mobile phones and server which will calculate all routing data.

TS:Imagine we were to produce a 'Welcome pack' for new qgis developers. What kind of informations would you like to see in it? I mean...you are arriving new to the project, unfamiliar with the code, sociology, working practices etc...what kind of things can we do to get you 'up to speed' as a developer most quickly? And before you ask, no I've been banned from putting any more pictures of my pet dog in the welcome pack. Or is the information you have alredy found surpassed all expectations?

'Welcome pack' should contain:

1. Architecture of the software - main components, how do they connect to each other
2. brief summary of what does every class do
3. place where can I ask you questions about QGIS when I'm lost in tons of code

TS: So in fact many of your requirements are available.

1. There is a (slightly out of date but still very useful) UML diagram of qgis
2. We have api documentation available
3. And of course the #qgis channel on freenode is the best place to ask general (or specific questions). Its manned 24/7 (well nearly) by QGIS junkies from all around the world :-)
4. Also, I should mention that we have a qgis developers mailing list which you can subscribe to on our sourceforge home page

TS: So how would you describe your programming skills?

Nowadays I'm good in writing C/C++ code with several years experience (but mainly programming for M$ Windows). Recently I have also some knowledge of non-procedural languages such as Prolog or Haskell (from school) and also some basic web coding using (x)html/css/php/mysql. About half a year ago I started to learn linux so I'm getting better with shell programming, awk etc.... A long time ago I used to write code in pascal and visual basic, but those days are over. I have only very small knowledge of QT, so I have to work it out...

TS: So you are working on QGIS as part of a University assignment? Is it becoming normal for course supervisors to encourage their students to work on FOSS projects? Are you happy with the idea of your work being given away for free or would you have prefered an industry assignment where there was perhaps the option to make some money out of the process? I think its fantastic if lecturers are starting to encourage Open Source citizenship amongst their students....

Yes, it's my assigment... As far as I know mainly supervisors which are interested in unix/linux systems want us to write projects under GPL (or similar license) so more people can benefit from it. Also sometimes the software project has a very nice idea and later some people contribute and make it even better. I like the idea of open source software because gives you (nowadays) very good alternative to commercial software. Another thing is that if you don't write linux kernel or something like that you won't get sponsored by any companies... so I have to work also in some commercial projects from which I can receive money for my living and interests. So my idea is that when I have money to live from I can work also for open source community.

TS: Well its been very interesting to meet you...I am sure you probably have lots of questions to ask so Ill end the interview here and thank you very much for choosing QGIS to work on!