ABSTRACT
Programming thinking is critical to mastering a program language. The only way to become accustomed to thinking in a programming capacity is through experience. This chapter visualizes vector data to illustrate how to think in a programming manner. Visualizing GIS data is like drawing or painting on a blank cloth or canvas. GIS maps include essential elements such as a legend, map title, pertinent information, and an image of visualized data. The chapter introduces how to think like a programmer using GIS vector data visualization and includes problem analyses, pattern matching, coordinate transformation, drawing vector data on Canvas. The chapter utilizes two coding examples to demonstrate the programming thinking process: reading, parsing, and calculating length for polylines, and generating random points and rectangles; and check the contain relationship between every point and rectangle.
