KB10868 - Product selection for custom development: Editor vs DK

Editor versus the Developer Kernel. Which product should be selected for custom GIS development. Advantages & Disadvantages.

Advantages of the TatukGIS Developer Kernel (component)

1. Royalty-free application deployment. (The Editor involves per user or run-time licensing - with volume price discounts.)
2. More powerful for high level custom feature development or embedding GIS features into another software application. For example, a new class can be added to the DK API (which is not possible in the Editor).
3. More efficient code (than is possible with scripting), potentially resulting in better performance with complex feature implementations.
4. Ability to develop in a language of choice (C#, VB, F#, Pascal, C++...) using a preferred technology (VCL, ActiveX, .NET).
5. Appropriate for developing the server side of client-server applications.
6. Possibility for source code access. (The Editor source code is not available.)  

Advantages of the TatukGIS Editor (with scripting):

1. Lower up-front license fee to get started.
2. Fully customizable user interface and powerful (basic & pascal) scripting IDE exposing the full DK object API within the Editor for implementation of custom features or additional functionality.
3. Self contained development environment, so no need for 3rd party development suites (like Microsoft Visual Studio, Delphi, etc.).
4. Lower development costs and shorter development time because:
   • the starting point of the development is the already existing TatukGIS Editor, a well tested general purpose GIS desktop application developed from the DK and reflecting its features.
   • the development work can be performed by a less skilled developer or GIS power user.
5. Lower future maintenance costs because more of the software maintenance is performed by TatukGIS.
6. A deployed application built on the Editor also includes the built-in scripting features exposing the DK API. (The DK licensing forbids use of the DK product to develop an application that is scriptable or exposes the DK API.)
7. No license restrictions on the nature of the application that can be created from the Editor. (The DK licensing forbids use of the DK product to develop an application that is competitive to the TatukGIS Editor or another TatukGIS product.)
8. Default support for advanced 3rd party spatial database formats (Microsoft Spatial/Katmai, Oracle Spatial & Oracle GeoRaster, ESRI ArcSDE & ArcSDE Raster, PostGIS…).
9. Perfect for ad-hoc and in-house applications.