----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, November 16, 2002 3:40
AM
Subject: RE: What happen to support
?
Alfonso,
It is
unfortunate you have concerns with respect to support, as it is an
area
ERM places
a great deal of emphasis on.
First,
with respect to your original question regarding use of the free ER Mapper
SDK:
Have a
look at the supplied examples, which should help. In general, canvas
area
is the
area to paint, and the output area is the original zoom area (which might
be
different,
based on different zoom aspects). You need to call the rethink
extents
routine to
sort all this out when changes are made. The examples should show
how
to do
this. I am not sure from your email if you are using the C++ class or
the C
algorithm
structures, again there are examples for both (and as I recall, the
source
to the C++
classes are also provided).
Be
prepared to spend a bit of time sorting this out. The whole area of view
area
versus
requested area is a fantastically complex aspect of ER Mapper (or any
imagery
product),
as things like device DPI, device pixel aspect ratio, canvas aspect
ratio,
input
pixel aspect ratio, original zoom extents, and the like all have to be taken
into
account. This is why ER Mapper does so much
work in this area - it has to handle
odd sized
pixels, layers with different cell sizes, and so on. Anyway, the
examples
show how
to handle all this.
If you are
just trying to display images, have you considered using one of the
simpler
SDKs, such
as the ActiveX one, which handles all this for you? We have a range of
SDKs,
ranging
from simpler interfaces "just give me an image" to
more complex ones
"you can
do anything you like" ones like the ER Mapper SDK.
On the
more general question of support for free products:
Please
understand that we have two commercial products: ER Mapper
and
the Image
Web Server. We provide full support & updates to any client who
has
a current
support contract for these products.
We also
have a wide range of free downloads. There are millions of users
of
GIS/CAD/Office/Imaging applications who have access
to our technology when it
is built
into their favorite applications like AutoCAD, MapInfo, Manifold, 3D
EDGE,
Axis2000,
Cadcorp SIS, dlg32, ModelVision, Geo/SQL, GeoMedia, GDAL, Global
Mapper,
Gothic,
MapGuide, MapXtreme, IfranView, Microstation, Motaj,
OrthoEngine,
PetroSys,
PLS-CADD, SmallWorld, SpatialAce, Tera Vista, TTQV and VNS, just
to
name a
few.
In
addition, we get over 300,000 downloads per year of various free
plugins,
applications and SDKs. Of these,
we get something like 6,000 downloads per year
of *just*
SDK's (ER Mapper SDK, the suite of ECW SDK's, et al). We provide
all
these for
free, as a service to our clients and the geospatial community as a
whole.
We quite
simply could not begin to offer free support to all those users
and/or
developers
who take advantage of our technology. And there are a lot of
applications
using our
SDKs that we don't even hear about.
This is
not to say we don't pay attention to user feedback. Some of our
plugins
and SDKs
have gone through multiple version updates as we fine tune them
based
on user
feedback (the plugins for ArcView et al are good examples). We in
particular
pay
attention to resolving problems with GIS/CAD/Office users who are suddenly
able
to drop
100GB or even TB images into their applications - which often have
poor
raster
capability to begin with.
We are
very proud of our level of support & commitment to users of our
technology.
For
example, most ERM staff, resellers and partners monitor this list, and
often respond
(as I do
too when I can get the time).
However,
as I hope you can understand from the above, it is not logistically
possible
to provide
free and extensive R&D support on our free SDK's and plugins, especially
as
a lot of
effort went into creating examples to go with them. Most
developers
understand
that the use of any SDK generally takes some technical effort on
the
behalf of
the developer to sort out issues. Many software
companies
have
praised us for making very easy to use SDKs.
It is true
we could restrict SDKs and plugins by charging for them or adding
endless
complex
legal agreements and restrictions. But this would harm
everyone.
Today, ECW
is the popular standard for compressed geospatial
imagery,
just as
the ERS format is for floating point data in a number
of industries.
Several
data vendors recently noted that they now supply 85% to
90%
of their
data in ECW format. This enables the community to easily access data
on
different
platforms and under different products. It also helps
sales of our
commercial
products, so we can concentrate on providing high
quality
technology
and support.
I do hope
your technical difficulties with the free SDK get resolved to
your
satisfaction after working through the example code.
If not, drop me an email
and I'll
put you directly in touch with the R&D team to provide
assistance.
Kind
regards,
Stuart
Stuart Nixon
Chief Executive Officer
Earth Resource
Mapping
www.ermapper.com
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
It seems a very poor support on ERMapper
side. In fact, this is the worst support for people I have
seen.
I sent them two e-mails two weeks
ago, asking some technical questions and none were
answered.
Also, I sent previously to this list and the
same thing.
Alfonso Moreno
