GIS Provides a Common Visual Language - Everything You Want to Know

The common visual language provided by the GIS that organises into all types of layers helps us to understand almost everything about our world. With an internet connection, GIS connects and organises many individual GIS systems into a collection. However, some data, satellite images from a map server can define the way geographical data present.

In simple words, GIS is familiar with all the ideas of cartographers. In this article, we are going to cover all the aspects of visualisation. Firstly, it is vital to understand the definition of common visual language and GIS.

What is common visual language and GIS?

It is a type of programming language that uses graphical symbols and connectors for the design of algorithms. However, algorithms help process spatial data in the case of GIS. The textual programming language is opposite to the visual language.

They both have semantics and syntax. Moreover, textual programming languages use sequences of legal and illegal characters. For example, keywords such as to define, it, for and class that are useful in visual language helps to construct the syntactically valid programs.

However, you can't use a keyword as an identifier like the name of a function, variable or label. Moreover, if you are a new user, then it is vital to know the list of keywords in textual language and access the syntax rules for writing the program.

Lastly, visual programming language allows us to interact with the system and represent separate executable models as well as provide the protocol for the design of the algorithm.

Applications of common visual language and GIS

It helps to design the automatic processing of spatial data in visual form. When the same processing steps repeat on the different spatial data, the result of visual workflow is useful. However, simple graphical symbols represent spatial operation in the case of visualisation.

Moreover, you can create a simple visual form of sequence operation and can restore and reuse. The non-programmers who are not familiar with a textual programming language, the graphical type is useful for them.

On the other hand, visual language implements in remote sensing applications. Further, there is a time when both the applications combine in one geospatial application that offers algorithms. In informatics, workflow diagrams and data flow are one of the oldest graphical representations.

Pros and cons of visual programming language and GIS

Below we are going to show you some advantages and disadvantages of visual programming language.

Pros

• The graphical form has ease of design like drag and drops functionality, readability, reuse and comprehension.
• The realistic shape helps us to envision an algorithm.
• Instead of manually running operations, visual language operates many tedious tasks and allows us to run long workflows faster.
• It has a high self-reported ability to explain the steps of a workflow.
• It makes the process easy and reusable.
• Processing data with the same workflows introduces consistency and invariability.
• However, the workflows save resources, time and money.
• You can distribute workflows to non-experts.

However, visual language can be a valuable step for starting to learn the textual programming language from the perspective of the learning process. There are many workflow diagrams such as Python, GRASS GIS graphical modeller and QGIS processing modeller that are possible to convert into a functional textual program.

Cons

• Visual languages have implementation loops.
• There are some constructs like cycle FOR, or condition WHILE not implement in languages.
• It has big diagrams and complex processing resulting in indisputability of some features in visual language.
• It is uneasy to find the beginning and the end of the workflow diagram.
• Licence management and debugging tools are not accessible through visual language.
• It is hard to express the order of processes in ModelBuilder.
• It is strange to construct compared to the textual programming language.

Final thoughts

So, the purpose of this article is to provide you with every knowledge about common visual language and GIS. However, representation can help us to process spatial data into simple visual form to understand the information given on the map. Therefore, if you are approaching a GIS career, then read this article carefully to understand workflow diagrams and visual languages.