I already posted this in the ITT Developers Forum, but I think this forum gets more eyeballs. I would like to hear anyone's ideas of this. Even if it's only to say "it's not feasible near term with your skill set". Or, "don't double post your threads". I can take it.

I would love to be able to use a basic GIS app on my n800. I've used Maemo Mapper a lot. Obviously, it is an amazing app and probably one of the best developed for Maemo. But I really would like to have the ability to overlay shp files onto the maps. To me this is what would make the difference between a really great mapping app (Maemo Mapper) and a true GIS.

Quantum GIS is a free open-source GIS app, with source code available here. This is the program I would like to cross compile for Maemo via Scratch Box.

Some other users have remarked on this.

I have no experience using scratch box, cross compiling, software development, or any other relevant skills. But I would like to learn. Can someone with some experience give me an idea of how feasible it would be to cross compile Qgis and how difficult it might be?

I appreciate any feed back or info.

Thanks.

It might be as simple as "make", and it might be a lot more complicated. You can't know until you try. Install the SDK exactly according to the instructions:

http://repository.maemo.org/stable/4.1.2/INSTALL.txt

Then download the source, and try to build according to the instructions. It might have some libraries missing (it will be easy to tell if one of the build steps is ./configure, as this will tell you what is missing). Perhaps some those libraries are already available, but you might need to compile some of the dependencies as well.

Consider that GIS software is fairly CPU and memory intensive, and without specially prepared datasets (like Map does), it will be very, very slow. The missing/emulated FPU is not helping either for all the float vector operations. Maemo mapper (and qmapper and...) gets around this by using preprojected raster files (so the actual calculations, transformations and clipping of the original dataset is done on the server side). Thus, while probably doable, I don't think the result would be too appealing

Thanks for the feedback.

The following link describes another free open source GIS app called GRASS packaged for Familiar Linux OS on the iPAQ and also working on the Sharp Zaurus.

The iPAQ uses an APM processor, just like the NIT, right?

Anyone got a clue about how to get this working on Maemo?

Yes, the Zaurus and most iPaqs have ARM processors, too, but you probably can't just copy over the binaries (the NIT is a generation or two newer, both hardware and OS/software-wise). The fact that people got GRASS running on those machines is encouraging, though, I would have presumed it is harder to do than QGis (GRASS has a lot more dependencies, and IMO more exotic ones, too - like opengl stuff, the TK ui, etc). GRASS also has a bit of different focus compared to QGis, QGis is more of a very fancy GIS data viewer, GRASS is oriented toward analysis, obviously with some overlap in functionality between the two.

If you just want (not too large) shapefiles on top of WMS layers, I'd suggest going QGis. In fact, as Maemo is turning to Qt winds more and more now, the chances of QGis appearing in a repo are actually pretty good. Also, Qt will make your life easier with it's build system (unless you're an automake pro, of course).

I wonder if anyone is still thinking of this. I keep my "personal" GIS data (points I've visited, GPS paths, etc} on my N900 but I've only been able to view them while connected to a PC

It would be nice to show the maps I've created while on the road....

A recent post to a mailing list I subscribe to got me interested in this. Specifically for this dataset:
http://bikeatlas.org/

Supposedly this dataset is viewable using ArcGIS. But obviously this is not available for the N900. I will take a look at Quantum GIS if I get a chance. It is likely that easy debian provides a way to get to Quantum GIS.

Let me know if you get it working. I'm interested too!

I'm currently using grass(easy debian), but I prefer to use QGIS.
Nothing yet?