Geodata formats - Revision history

Darkblueb at 04:01, 2 May 2012

2012-05-02T04:01:40Z

Neteler: what about topology?

2007-11-17T21:27:37Z

what about topology?

Wiki-Bitner at 16:10, 14 November 2007

2007-11-14T16:10:58Z

Wiki-Bitner at 15:57, 14 November 2007

2007-11-14T15:57:37Z

Wiki-Punkish at 19:25, 13 November 2007

2007-11-13T19:25:48Z

Wiki-Bitner: /* = Willing Developers/Supporters */

2007-11-13T19:24:53Z

= Willing Developers/Supporters

Wiki-Bitner: /* New Open Geodata Format */

2007-11-13T19:23:41Z

New Open Geodata Format

Wiki-Bitner at 19:22, 13 November 2007

2007-11-13T19:22:02Z

Wiki-Bitner: New page: Placeholder for talking about geodata formats. Please create content.

2007-11-13T18:53:50Z

New page: Placeholder for talking about geodata formats. Please create content.

New page

Placeholder for talking about geodata formats. Please create content.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Placeholder for talking about geodata formats.  Please create content.
+Placeholder for talking about geodata formats.  Please create/point to content.
 == Shapefiles ==
 Shapefiles as they exist today are an open specification published by ESRI.

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:27, 17 November 2007
Line 58:		Line 58:
	* SQLite excels at one thing that it has been entrusted to do -- retrieve data that it has been entrusted with at extremely fast speeds, and maintain ACID data integrity in case of a programmatic catastrophe. The transactions themselves are worth their price of admission, which, happily, happens to be zero.		* SQLite excels at one thing that it has been entrusted to do -- retrieve data that it has been entrusted with at extremely fast speeds, and maintain ACID data integrity in case of a programmatic catastrophe. The transactions themselves are worth their price of admission, which, happily, happens to be zero.
	* '''Java support''' -- well, yes, use/work on SQLite JDBC. I have been using it for a few days now and find it to be a pretty competent conduit. Extend it, spatialize it. ANSI standard C is still that magic common denominator that compiles and works predictably on most number of systems. I have a lot against Java, but those who love Java should definitely work on tools for accessing and working with this new format as it would only make the format more widely used and adopted.		* '''Java support''' -- well, yes, use/work on SQLite JDBC. I have been using it for a few days now and find it to be a pretty competent conduit. Extend it, spatialize it. ANSI standard C is still that magic common denominator that compiles and works predictably on most number of systems. I have a lot against Java, but those who love Java should definitely work on tools for accessing and working with this new format as it would only make the format more widely used and adopted.
		+	* '''Topology''': topology matters. Many vector editing operations are rather impossible without topological information. However, it slows down data access. How to deal with that?

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapefile Wikipedia Entry]
 * [http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf ESRI Shapefile Specification Whitepaper]
 == New Open Geodata Format ==
 === Why ===

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 Placeholder for talking about geodata formats.  Please create content.
+== Shapefiles ==
 == New Open Geodata Format ==
 === Why ===

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:25, 13 November 2007
Line 8:		Line 8:
	=== Willing Developers/Supporters ===		=== Willing Developers/Supporters ===
	* List developers willing to add interfaces to new format or people willing to fund this development		* List developers willing to add interfaces to new format or people willing to fund this development
		+
		+	=== Preliminary Thoughts ===
		+
		+	A dump of my email text to get things started. Please feel free to edit.
		+
		+	The new format --
		+
		+	* '''Should be fast.''' SQLite is plenty fast, and anything that simply "extends" the Shapefile format to inject relational capabilities should be pretty fast. It should definitely be faster than a geodatabase format (such as PostGIS/ArcSDE) and perhaps even faster than Shapefiles especially while accessing attribute data. DBF is sequential, and searching for textual information is particularly expensive. SQLite has been tuned to excellence. I have been working with it for a few years now, and it really is an amazing product, development community, support, and capabilities. That it is in public domain makes for a transfat-free icing on the cake.
		+	* '''Should be unencumbered by licenses and copyrights.''' Ideally, the new format could also be put back into public domain. We want to remove all encumbrances to encourage rapid and wide adoption.
		+	* '''Should be a single file'''. Well, some like multiple files and some like single files. We can achieve both objectives by using a tar-gzipped packaging such as Apple tends to use for much of its stuff (for example, its Pages wordprocessor uses a tgzipped xml file along with other resources for icons and pictures and stuff). Or, if speed is going to be affected because of gzipping and gunzipping, just a package format (I have no idea if this is a Unix thing or a Mac OS thing -- we, in the Mac world, call them packages... they appear like files in the Finder, and like directories in the shell).
		+	* '''Should be easy to transition to.''' By building the new format on the structure of the Shapefile format, and in fact, calling it "open shapefiles" or some such thing, we indicate from its name that the transition is not that revolutionary but is evolutionary. This, hopefully, will bring some name-familiarity, and make the transition less scary.
		+	* '''SQLite's lack of datatypes as an issue''' -- I guess that is a matter of preference. I personally quite like that freedom as it gives me, the application developer, complete control over what goes where. SQLite actually does have now a few datatypes that it respects, but doesn't complain about. Since all users will be accessing the data via an application, as long as the application is well defined, it should be fine.
		+	* SQLite excels at one thing that it has been entrusted to do -- retrieve data that it has been entrusted with at extremely fast speeds, and maintain ACID data integrity in case of a programmatic catastrophe. The transactions themselves are worth their price of admission, which, happily, happens to be zero.
		+	* '''Java support''' -- well, yes, use/work on SQLite JDBC. I have been using it for a few days now and find it to be a pretty competent conduit. Extend it, spatialize it. ANSI standard C is still that magic common denominator that compiles and works predictably on most number of systems. I have a lot against Java, but those who love Java should definitely work on tools for accessing and working with this new format as it would only make the format more widely used and adopted.

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 === Scope ===
 * Describe Scope of new format
-=== Willing Developers/Supporters ==
+=== Willing Developers/Supporters ===
 * List developers willing to add interfaces to new format or people willing to fund this development

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:23, 13 November 2007
Line 6:		Line 6:
	=== Scope ===		=== Scope ===
	* Describe Scope of new format		* Describe Scope of new format
		+	=== Willing Developers/Supporters ==
		+	* List developers willing to add interfaces to new format or people willing to fund this development

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:22, 13 November 2007
Line 1:		Line 1:
	Placeholder for talking about geodata formats. Please create content.		Placeholder for talking about geodata formats. Please create content.
		+
		+	== New Open Geodata Format ==
		+	=== Why ===
		+	Add details of why we need a new format
		+	=== Scope ===
		+	* Describe Scope of new format