Re: [udig-devel] Rendering into GeoTools?

[Andrea Aime <andrea.aime@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Matthias Basler wrote:
> Hi, developers, hi Jesse in particular

> I propose carefully that we decide on ONE rendering model - the better one of
> course - and then put it into Geotools, so that other projects, like
> GeoWidgets, can take use of it. I believe rendering is so substantial, there
> MUST be a good rendering package in GeoTools. Jody obviously likes the idea as
> well.

Just to share my 2 cents on this matter: the idea of one renderer per layer, 
coupled with a factory that can generated the best renderer for a given feature
source, is in my opinion much better than "one renderer to rule them all".
It's just that no-one had the time to work on it in geotools...

Just think of a few advantages:
* specialized renderers that can leverage the specific nature of the data source
  (shapefileRendered, anyone? ;-) )
* choice of different algorithms, for labeling, for example;
* choice of different trade offs between memory usage and performance
  (for example, using memory based renderer for small data sets, so that at
  least those can be rendered instantly)
* choice of different strategies to handle raster data
  (for example, we don't really need JAI to renderer a Jpeg or GIF image that
   does not need to be reprojected)

Best regards
Andrea Aime