What is the best programming language to write desktop GPS tracking system?

Question

Hi,

I want to create desktop application for GPS tracking system. I would like to know which programming is the best to go for?

Here is the scenario:

• GPS device will transimit the location to the host computer.
• Host computer will receieve the transmitted data and display it on Desktop application which is going to be GPS tracking system application.

Could you guys please help me out to choose which programming language is the best for my scenario?

• C# .net
• C++ .net
• Python
• Delphi

I think python will be harder to implement user graphic. But not sure about which one is the best suitable one from C#, C++ and delphi.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Whichever you know better. After all, they are all Turing-complete and can be used to solve this kind of problem.

You can always hack together some throw-away prototype code to get a feeling of how hard/easy is it going to be in a particular language.

Answer 2

GPS devices typically provide their data in NMEA format, which is text, and the data is transmitted over a serial port (and the serial port is possibly transported over a USB or bluetooth connection). So you do need a programming language that allows you to create a COM port connection easily.

Other than that, if you want to analyse the NMEA (which is a text file streaming in at about 6 lines a second) you might want a scripting language suitable for that such as Perl. But if you are going to produce charts and graphics then you want something suited to that - C# would be fine, as would Java. It's probably best to go with a language you are familiar with.

Answer 3

Well, as this thread is about asking how to do GPS tracking systems things, so I think it is a good place to ask a similar question; if we have the following scenario:

1. rather than connecting a GPS receiver to a PC, the user will have a mobile device with integrated GPS receiver.

2. location data will be sent over mobile network using GPRS data connection to a server side

3. the data will be processed and a KML path file will be created and updated on time intervals and used to track the user using Google Earth.

The question is: what is the best method to accomplish this scenario for the server side; is it a web service, a web application, a windows service, a windows application or what exactly? Whats is the best technology to do it? Also I have to take into account that the system will serve a number of users simultaneously, and that more users may use the system in the future(scalability issues).