July 27, 2026
The QGIS program - Introduction
The "Q" in QGIS once stood for "quantum"
QGIS was first written by one person -- Gary Sherman. He wrote it in 2002 using C++ and the qt toolkit on linux.
He originally just wanted a viewer for PostGIS data (whatever that is). At the time ARC/INFO was the offering
from ESRI, running on Sun/Solaris workstations. Since then, a team of developers has arisen, and he no longer
takes a lead role in the project. I view all of this as a great success story.
Interestingly his background in minerals, geology, and mining, like my own.
The phrase "GIS" was coined in the 1960s by Roger Tomlinson (Canada, England),
who also introduced other nomenclature and concepts.
Feedback? Questions?
Drop me a line!
Tom's Geology Info / tom@mmto.org