We do not as a rule cache any features
- in part so we can work with massive content.
As a framework we want to be as light
on resources as possible, and leave it up to
applications that use uDig to choose when (and
what) to cache.
There is a cache checkbox in the style
editor you can tick as an experimental option, it
keeps the features in a spatial index (and pull
features in as needed as your scroll around. It is
very effective when working with things like WFS.
The second question is a bit more
interesting, wanting features in world
coordinates.
If you want to do that make a request
of the feature source and fill in the viewport CRS
in the Query object. The features will be
reprojected as they come out of the database or
shapefile. Indeed in some cases the data sources
supports native reproduction allowing us to do
less work in uDig.
Note that the features that are drawn
on screen are subject to "decimation" by the
rendering engine, we throw out coordinates on the
fly, based on the math transform constructed
between the original data, the world CRS and the
affine transformation to the screen. The earlier
we can throw out coordinates the less information
involved in drawing, and the faster we can update
the screen.
Jody