Quantum GIS

Quantum GIS

Quantum GIS 0.8.0 Titan
Developer(s)	QGIS Development Team
Initial release	January 2009 (2009-01)
Stable release	1.7.4 (Wroclaw) / February 19, 2012 (2012-02-19)
Written in	C++
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	Geographic information system
License	GPL
Website	http://qgis.org/

Quantum GIS (often abbreviated QGIS) is a cross-platform free software (also referred to as open source) desktop Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application that provides data viewing, editing, and analysis capabilities.

Development

Gary Sherman began development of Quantum GIS in early 2002, and it became an incubator project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation in 2007. Version 1.0 was released in January 2009.

Quantum GIS is written in C++, and uses the Qt library extensively. Quantum GIS allows integration of plugins developed using either C++ or Python. In addition to Qt, required dependencies of Quantum GIS include GEOS and SQLite. GDAL, GRASS GIS, PostGIS, and PostgreSQL are also recommended, as they provide access to additional data formats.

Quantum GIS runs on different operating systems including Mac OS X, Linux, UNIX, and Microsoft Windows. For Mac users, the advantage of Quantum GIS over GRASS GIS is that it does not require the X11 windowing system in order to run, and the interface is much cleaner and faster. Quantum GIS can also be used as a graphical user interface to GRASS. Quantum GIS has a small file size compared to commercial GIS's and requires less RAM and processing power; hence it can be used on older hardware or running simultaneously with other applications where CPU power may be limited.^{[citation needed]}

Quantum GIS is maintained by an active group of volunteer developers who regularly release updates and bug fixes. Currently, developers have translated Quantum GIS into 31 languages and the application is used internationally in academic and professional environments.

Release history

Version	Codename	Release date	Significant changes
0.0.1-alpha		July 2002	Import and view data from PostGIS
0.0.3-alpha		August 10, 2002	Added support for shapefiles and other vector formats.
0.0.4-alpha		August 15, 2002	Improvements in layers handling, colorize layers, and view properties in a dialog box.
0.0.5-alpha		October 5, 2002	Bug fixes and improved stability, ability to set line widths, and improved zoom in/out functionality.
0.0.6		November 24, 2002	Improvements to PostGIS connections, layer identify function added, and ability to view and sort attribute tables.
0.0.7		November 30, 2002	[1]
0.0.8		December 11, 2002	[2]
0.0.9		January 25, 2003	[3]
0.0.10		May 13, 2003	[4]
0.0.11		June 10, 2003	[5]
0.0.12		June 10, 2003	[6]
0.0.13		December 8, 2003	[7]
0.1pre1		February 14, 2004	Added support for raster data; single, continuous, and graduated shading for vector data; ability to create buffers, implemented as a PostGIS plugin.
0.1	Moroz	February 25, 2004	[8]
0.2	Pumpkin	April 26, 2004	[9] [10] [11]
0.3	Madison	May 28, 2004	[12] [13]
0.4	Baby	July 4, 2004	[14] [15]
0.5	Bandit	October 5, 2004	[16] [17]
0.6	Simon	December 19, 2004	[18] [19]
0.7	Seamus		[20]
0.7.3		October 11, 2005	[21] [22]
0.8		January 7, 2007	[23] [24]
0.8.1	"Titan"	June 15, 2007	[25] [26]
0.9.0		October 26, 2007	[27] [28] [29]
0.9.1	"Ganymede"	January 6, 2008	[30] [31] [32]
0.10	"Io"	May 3, 2008	[33] [34]
0.11.0	"Metis"	July 21, 2008	[35] [36]
1.0.0	"Kore"	January 5, 2009	[37] [38]
1.1.0	"Pan"	May 12, 2009	[39] [40]
1.2.0	"Daphnis"	September 1, 2009	[41] [42]
1.3.0	"Mimas"	September 20, 2009	[43] [44]
1.4.0	"Enceladus"	January 10, 2010	[45] [46]
1.5.0	"Tethys"	July 29, 2010	[47]
1.6.0	"Copiapó"	November 27, 2010	[48] [49]
1.7.0	"Wrocław"	June 19, 2011	[50]

Licensing

As a free software application under the GNU GPL, Quantum GIS can be freely modified to perform different or more specialized tasks. Two examples are the QGIS Browser and QGIS Server applications, which use the same code for data access and rendering, but present different front-end interfaces. There are also numerous plug-ins available which expand the software's core functionality.

Data formats

Quantum GIS allows use of shapefiles, coverages, and personal geodatabases. MapInfo, PostGIS, and a number of other formats are supported in Quantum GIS. Web services, including Web Map Service and Web Feature Service, are also supported to allow use of data from external sources.

Functionality

Quantum GIS provides integration with other open source GIS packages, including PostGIS, GRASS, and MapServer to give users extensive functionality.

Plugins, written in Python, extend the capabilities of QGIS. There are plugins to geocode using the Google Geocoding API, perform geoprocessing (fTools) similar to the standard tools found in ArcGIS, interface with PostgreSQL and MySQL databases, and use Mapnik as a map renderer.

External links

• Quantum GIS Web site