What kind of programming do I need to learn to create a GPS network?

What software and languages do I have to learn in order to know how satellites, cell phones, GPS systems and computers work? A business partner of mine told me to learn 4 languages and I can easily master them all. But what is the over general knowledge I need to be able have, to give the schematics on a new GPS system I am creating for my start up company? And where can I learn this for free and in a short time|||Depends what phone you will be programming on.


Android: Java


Windows Mobile: C++, C#


Windows Phone: Silverlight, Microsoft XNA


Symbian/ Nokia: Java?


Motorola: Java


iPhone: Cocoa "Objective C"





All of them support programming access to cell towers and gps, but they each require research and practice to get comfortable with the langauge. I don't think XNA has the support, but I could also be wrong. I blame a lack of sufficient research.





Try visiting Xda-developers.com to get more help. It is a large active community of mobile user and programmers.





To learn about GPS programming in general, use wikipedia as a jumping point. From that last I remember, there is 2 world views in the GPS location programs: round Earth and oblong/ bumpy Earth. Round Earth is easier to calculate position, but inaccurate. Bumpy Earth is more accurate, but requires more trig skills and cpu cycles.|||1) You'll need to learn programming itself. Learning a language (or 3 dozen languages) isn't learning programming.





2) C++, assembly, almost anything, depending on what devices you;re writing code for, and what kind of code you're writing.





3) Schematics are hardware, not programming.





4) Define "short time". Programming itself will take you about 6 months. Learning the math used in GPS calculations will take 6 months to a year. Learning the physics of GPS will take a while - months to years.





5) Knowing how computers work? I've been doing this for over 37 years, and I;m still learning. I suggest that you hire people who know the things it's going to take you years to learn. (Engineers, software or hardware, don't make good salaries because they learned engineering in a short time, they get paid for years and years of study, both in college and forever after graduation.)





Ideas aren't worth even a dime a dozen, it's the ability to bring them to market that's worth money. So if all you have is an idea, and not the knowledge and experience to bring it to market, or the capital to hire people who can, I wouldn't bother.|||C++ and Java [Definite!],


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Linux [OS]


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Networking [TCP/IP]