Recommendations:GIS program in Ada

[tatebll@aol.com (Bill Tate)]

I've been looking for any excuse to build an application in Ada -
specifically a GIS program with a business analysis focus (the
commercial alternatives are expensive, do not fit my particular needs
& they are not written in Ada - the latter being a non-starter with me
anyway).

In reviewing available packages, I'm curious as to whether anyone has
any thoughts on the suitability of using GtkAda for the graphical user
interface?

In some cases, we could be talking about an interface capable of
handling 1000's of geometric primitive "objects" on the screen at any
one time, e.g., all points/lines/arcs that define a zip code(s)
boundary.  The req's of the application do not involve complex 3D
geometric calculations - this is purely a 2-D visual presentation. The
graphic primitives to be used to represent real-world geographic
features will be limited to simple geometric types (points, polygons,
arcs, etc.).  It is also necessary to handle the data in a "layered"
fashion (i.e., a different layer for each type of geographic feature
represented.

As far as I can determine thus far, the GtkAda.Canvas package offers
some nice features already built-in and the overall GtkAda package
appears to be quite comprehensive.  My preference is avoid going the
OpenGL route if at all possible.

If anyone has any thoughts, recommendation and/or reservations, etc.,
I would greatly welcome any feedback.  Thanks in advance,

Bill