GIScript: Towards an interoperable geospatial scripting language for GIS programming

A scripting language is a form of programming language that is interpreted (translated on the fly) rather than compiled ahead of time. Programming languages used for scripting range from domain-specific languages (e. g., Bash for Unix, JavaScript for Web browsers, VBA for Microsoft Office applications) to general-purpose programming languages (e. g., Python, Ruby, Perl, PHP). Scripting languages have been widely used, since they allow the quick programming development, easy communication with other programs, and convenient job controls. In the GIS domain, geo-enabled scripting languages such as ArcPy and GeoScript plays an increasingly important role in automating workflow-based geoprocessing and map generation. Such scripting languages could be further extended into a parallel computing environment to enable the automation of high performance geocomputation. It is necessary then to call for an interoperable geospatial scripting language for GIS programming, the so-called GIScript. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for GIScript. It discusses the key considerations for the design of GIScript. Possible solutions towards an implementation of GIScript are suggested.