[gdal-dev] FFI Interface (to Perl)

[Ari Jolma]

Folks,

I've been experimenting with the Perl module FFI::Platypus, to create a 
Perl interface to GDAL with its help(1) and it's progressing well. 
FFI::Platypus itself uses libffi, which is a portable interface library. 
That, and Alien::gdal, which is a Perl module to use GDAL in a system 
that has Perl, allow some significant simplifications and streamlining 
for the Perl bindings.

I can imagine those leading to the retirement of the Swig based Perl 
bindings at some point (like GDAL 3.0) and having only a single 
distribution of Perl GDAL bindings that does not live in GDAL source 
tree and is distributed through CPAN. In the meantime the Swig based 
bindings will live in GDAL source tree and a copy of that with a 
modified configuration system (that uses the Alien::gdal) in github(2) + 
CPAN.

I don't think I'm aiming at 100% similar API with the FFI interface than 
Geo::GDAL since in the latter has accumulated some undesirable things 
over the years. Anybody interested in the new API is welcome to collaborate.

Best regards,

Ari

(1) https://github.com/ajolma/Geo-GDAL-FFI

(2) https://github.com/ajolma/Geo-GDAL-2.02