[GRASS5] Re: Named attribute support in GRASS

[Eric G. Miller]

On Thu, 7 Feb 2002 14:43:08 -0500, Carl Worth <cworth at east.isi.edu> wrote:

>  > I'm considering writing a vector line module similar to d.vect.area, only
>  > it'd be for drawing labelled lines in different colors via a similar
>  > legend file (yea? nay? don't care?).
> 
> Eric,
> 
> Thanks for this excellent work.
> 
> I've been thinking, and it seems like a better long-term solution is
> to move away from a new "legend file" and make better use of
> attributes in GRASS.
> 
> I've been looking at the sites format, (I don't know how other formats
> compare), and it does allow for named attribute columns, but the names
> are rarely used in GRASS. Instead, the attributes are referenced by
> index, (oddly, by an index specific to each attribute type).

I don't disagree with you about using attributes, but that functionality
isn't available in GRASS 5.0 (only cat numbers and labels).  I wouldn't
want to extend the sites format. IMHO, it should be thrown away as soon
as possible and replaced with database tables.  Better point data
support in 5.1 vectors will probably makes "sites" a thing of the
past (I can hope can't I?).

-- 
Eric G. Miller <egm2 at jps.net>