Mac OS X for Geographers

About Mac OS X

Mac OS X You probably heard enough hype about the os x operating system, courtesy of some pretty dumb Apple advertisements. My opinion on the matter is that it's a great operating system, not because it's bomb-proof (which it definitely is not), but because it blends the best of Unix with the best of Windows. Applications are easy to install (not like Unix/Linux!) and you can do everything and more from the terminal. If you've been suckered into using only a mouse for everything, take some time to use commandline. It can be much faster and give that mouse hand a break. The final reason os x is great is because of the keyboard shortcuts. Once you get the basics, you will become immensly frustrated at how tedious and slow working on Unix and Windows computers is. Keyboard shortcuts save you time, commandline Unix gives you power, and user interface makes it all too easy.

Vector GIS

GRASS

GRASS is the granddaddy open-source GIS. GRASS on Mac OS X Allthough there have been some major developments on the front-end of this application, GRASS is reminicent of ArcInfo Workstation. The list of capabilities is astounding, but it can be a bear to operate, so go to the website and use the tutorials. Even better, buy the book. The software is free, so you can afford to buy a nice hardback book from them. The user interface is getting nicer each release and is impressive. The best is that commandline isn't being sacrificed, you can do anything via commandline if you wish, handy of you know exactly what you want to do. The biggest downside to GRASS is that all data has to be imported into GRASS. This makes quick display of a new data set impossible, particularly multiband rasters. Use Quantum GIS or UDIG if you want to make sure it's data that you need in your GRASS database.

Quantum GIS

This is going to be a big one. Quantum GIS is easy to use and plays nicely with GRASS. Vector editing is limited in QGIS, but it's just a matter of time until it becomes "up to snuff". If possible, use GRASS for raster work, complex vector work, and QGIS for layout and easy vector editing. The latest trend is starting up QGIS in a GRASS session (in the terminal). Apparently, this brings a lot of the GRASS vector editing tools into QGIS. I haven't put any effort into it yet, but the screenshots look very promising.

LandSerf

Nothing beats LandSerf for working in three-dimensions. This is an intuitive application for contour generation and three-dimensional visualization. The author, Jo Woods also has a great beginners book for Java development for spatial scientists.

Udig

Throw in UDIG because it's so easy to use. UDIG it's a good application for display purposes. This is handy if you want to see what you're dealing with before importing.

Image Processing Applications

HyperCube

Hypercube is one that I can't live without, I tried. HyperCube is primarily intended for hyperspectral data, but will work with even single band datasets. I found it invaluable for taking multiple single band images to create an image stack. I seem to get a lot of imagery in which each band is a stored as a seperate file. With HyperCube, you can take 3 of them and create and RGB image.

MultiSpec

MultiSpec is a good general purpose image processing application. It has some nice features and is easy to use. Similar to HyperCube, but without the focus on hyperspectral data sets.

General Scientific Applications

Text Wrangler

TextWrangler is by far the best "text editor" around. Actually, it's much better than a text editor, since it has the ability to save or copy files directly to an ftp site or edit remote files directly. This is such a good idea, I can't believe it isn't more popular. This editor also allows the preview and transfer of image files. I use this tool for everything html on my web pages. Plus, this works great in the OS X environment and allows you to drag and drop files right on to the icon in the application bar, not like some of the Unix ones.

General science tools

  • ImageJ
  • OpenOffice
  • Graphic Converter
  • CrossFTP
  • OmniGraffle
  • PostGreSQL
  • R
  • Grapher
  • GnuPlot
  • Octave
  • PostGIS

    • I shamelessly stole this design and idea from this website Mac OS X for Physicists. I found it very helpful and I reccommend having a look.

    Here are some other interesting links. You can find other links on my links page links. Remote Sensing.org, Free GIS .org.

    Go back to the tutorials page