I'm a programmer making his first steps in the GIS world. In order to get to know this world I wrote some map based apps using WMS / OSM , OpenLayers and MS-SQL (non spatial). Now I want to put it all together and do some more advanced coding (adding caching capabilities for example , thematic map...)
What are the most common functions in your opinion a GIS app should have ?
I get the obvious are measuring (line and area) probably something related to features info ... But beside that I have no idea what else.
I would like to use your experience for making a base app that will answer most basic GIS requirements (and will put together all the technologies I chose to practice with)