In this chapter, you learned about the hierarchy of geospatial analysis software. You also learned a framework for approaching the hundreds of existing geospatial software packages and libraries, by categorizing them into one or more major functions, including data access, computational geometry, raster processing, visualization, and metadata management.
We also examined commonly used foundation libraries, including GDAL, OGR, PROJ, and GEOS, which are found again and again in geospatial software. You can approach any new piece of geospatial software, trace it back to these core libraries, and then ask, what is the value added? to gain a better understanding of the package. If the software isn't using one of these libraries, you need to ask, why are these developers going against the grain? in order to understand what that system brings to the table.
Python was only...