Another programming language popularity contest

If you are interested in the relative popularity of programming languages and the related trends, you may find TIOBE Programmıng Community Index useful. This site holds monthly popularity contests through the use of search data by Google.

How to construct a makefile on Windows and make life easier for a QGIS Python Plugin

Development of a Python plugin for QGIS is a fun experience and I plan to share my relevant adventures in a future post. But for now, I want to focus on the deployment aspect of it, which can be frustrating if done manually.

Visibility Analysis Plugin (VAP) for QGIS in the repository

Hi folks!

My humble visibility analysis python plugin for Quantum GIS can be downloaded from the User Contributed Repository. It is currently experimental software (version 0.0.9), but new features will be added soon according to my thesis work.

Updated Ash Spread Maps of Icelandic Volcano Eyjafjallajökull

I am back for a quick informative post...

Effects of Precision in Viewshed Analysis

I have added high-precision calculation option to my viewshed analysis plugin for QGIS as promised. After spending the last couple of days sick, I am back here at last :)

Why Floating-Point Arithmetic is Just Wrong?!

....or why 0.1 + 0.1 + 0.1 - 0.3 is NOT equal to zero !

I know that floating point operations in computer languages are inherently wrong! In fact every seasoned developer knows this; often with some painful memories of bug-hunting sessions in the past. But newcomers might be suprised by this behavior.

So, let me first explain what is wrong with the floating point numbers? Let's use Python as our guinea pig:

Just What is Python? My Initial Thoughts

As I've made some progress on my Python adventures, now may be a good time to express some of my initial opinions on the language.

Fırst of all, I've realized some of my beginner frustrations would have been greatly eased if I had understood just what kind of language was Python. So, I will try to list some primary concepts here:

Visibility Analysis: one way of doing it

It has been 18 days since I've started working on my Visibility Analysis Plugin for QGIS mini-project. Between my day job and many other activities I am more or less satisfied with my progress.

Viewshed Analysis mini-project

Ok folks, I've just started to learn the widely acclaimed Python language primarily to use it for my thesis study concerning with the GIS (Geographical Information Systems). It looks like just the right type of language for my purposes, which is to develop a viewshed analysis tool... fast!