Re: Bug#217237: ITP: qgis -- A Geographic Information System (GIS)

[Neil Spring <nspring@cs.washington.edu>]

On Thu, Oct 23, 2003 at 08:55:37PM -0400, Georg Nikodym wrote:
>> > (GIS) built for Linux/Unix. QGIS will offer support for vector,
>> > raster (still to do), and database formats.
>> 
>> What is a Geographical Information System? A one or two-line
>> definition should probably be part of the long description.

> While your request is not unreasonable, it may be worth noting that the
> acronym GIS (as well as the expansion) have been in use for a very long
> time (certainly longer than I've been in computing) and will not be at
> all mysterious to those with an interest in the field.

The phrase is mysterious to those with an interest in Debian
software, and that is who the Debian package description is
for, even if the package is useless to people who don't
already know.

I note this because I realized that I might have a use for
this software in rendering maps of network topologies, but
only after looking at the screenshots.  Until then, I had no
idea what a geographical information system was beyond the
obvious.  Just a couple sentences of description of what the
software is for would go a long way.

thanks,
-neil