FWTools is a set of open source

Open source

The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...

 programs for geographical information systems bundled by Frank Warmerdam

Frank Warmerdam

Frank Warmerdam is a software developer with a focus on remote sensing, geographic information system, cartography, and development of geospatial data translators. He is best known in the GIS community as the author of the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library or GDAL...

 (initials FW). The graphical GIS toolset is made for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 and Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 platforms, and includes several popular subpackages:

• OpenEV
  OpenEV
  OpenEV is an open source geospatial toolkit and a frontend to that toolkit. OpenEV was developed using Python and uses the GDAL library to display georeferenced images and elevation data...
  
   – A high performance raster/vector desktop data viewer and analysis tool.
• MapServer
  MapServer
  MapServer is an open source development environment for building spatially-enabled internet applications. It can run as a CGI program or via MapScript which supports several programming languages . MapServer was developed by the University of Minnesota — so, it is often and more specifically...
  
   – A web mapping package.
• GDAL/OGR
  GDAL
  GDAL is a library for reading and writing raster geospatial data formats, and is released under the permissive X/MIT style free software license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats...
  
   – A library and set of command line utility applications for reading and writing a variety of geospatial raster (GDAL) and vector (OGR) formats.
• PROJ.4 – A cartographic projections library with command-line utilities.
• OGDI – A multi-format raster and vector reading technology noteworthy for inclusion of support for various military formats including VPF
  Vector Product Format
  Vector Product Format is a military standard for vector-based digital map products produced by the U.S. Department of Defense . It has been adopted as part of DIGEST in the form of Vector Relational Format , so VPF can be considered to be an international standard as well.-External links:*...
  
   (i.e., VMAP, VITD), RPF (i.e., CADRG
  Cadrg
  Čadrg is a settlement in the Municipality of Tolmin in the Littoral region of Slovenia. It lies within Triglav National Park.- External links :*...
  
  , CIB
  Controlled Image Base
  Controlled Image Base or CIB is unclassified digital imagery, produced to support mission planning and command, control, communications, and intelligence systems. CIB is used as a map substitute for emergencies and crises in the event that maps do not exist or are outdated...
  
  ), and ADRG.
• Python programming language
  Python (programming language)
  Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
  
  

While Frank continues to update FWTools for Windows from time to time, most development effort in the Windows bundle has shifted to OSGeo4W.

External links

• http://fwtools.maptools.org/
• http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/