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I've written up an Overview for GDAL. I'm not very familiar with
GDAL, so would appreciate it if someone who has used GDAL could
review my text and confirm:<br>
1. That what I've written is clear and understandable<br>
2. Is technically accurate<br>
<br>
I'd also appreciate suggestions regarding what image we should use
to accompany the text.<br>
Can we think of something better than a screen grab of a command
line call of one of the gdal scripts?<br>
<br>
<div class="section" id="gdal-ogr">
<h1>GDAL/OGR<a class="headerlink" title="Permalink to this
headline">¶</a></h1>
<div class="section" id="transformation-library">
<h2>Transformation Library<a class="headerlink" title="Permalink
to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL/OGR) provides
command-line utilities to translate and process a wide range
of raster and vector geospatial data formats.</p>
<p>The utilities are based upon a cross platform, C++ library,
accessible via numerous programming languages. As a library,
it presents a single abstract data model to the calling
application for all supported formats.</p>
<p>GDAL/OGR is the most widely used geospatial data access
library. It provides the primary data access engine for many
applications including MapServer, GRASS, QGIS, and OpenEV. It
is also utilized by packages such as OSSIM, Cadcorp SIS, FME,
Google Earth, VTP, Thuban, ILWIS, MapGuide and ArcGIS.</p>
<div class="section" id="core-features">
<h3>Core Features<a class="headerlink" title="Permalink to
this headline">¶</a></h3>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Command-line utilities for data translation, image
warping, subsetting, and various other common tasks</li>
<li>Highly efficiency raster data access, taking advantage
of tiling and overviews</li>
<li>Support for large files - larger than 4GB</li>
<li>Library access from Python, Java, C#, Ruby, VB6 and Perl</li>
<li>Coordinate system engine built on PROJ.4 and OGC Well
Known Text coordinate system descriptions</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="popular-supported-formats">
<h3>Popular Supported Formats<a class="headerlink"
title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>GDAL supports over 50 raster formats, and OGR over 20
vector formats.</p>
<p>These include:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><strong>Raster:</strong> GeoTIFF, Erdas Imagine, SDTS,
ESRI Grids, ECW, MrSID, JPEG2000, DTED, and more ...</li>
<li><strong>Vector:</strong> MapInfo (tab and mid/mif), ESRI
Shapefile, ESRI Coverages, ESRI Personal Geodatabase, DGN,
GML, PostGIS, Oracle Spatial, and more ...</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="implemented-standards">
<h3>Implemented Standards<a class="headerlink"
title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>The OGR vector data model closely aligned with OGC Simple
Features.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="details">
<h3>Details<a class="headerlink" title="Permalink to this
headline">¶</a></h3>
<p><strong>Website:</strong> <a class="reference external"
href="http://www.gdal.org">http://www.gdal.org</a></p>
<p><strong>Licence:</strong> <a class="reference external"
href="http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/FAQGeneral#WhatlicensedoesGDALOGRuse">X/MIT
style Open Source license</a></p>
<p><strong>Software Version:</strong> 1.7.2-4~lucid3</p>
<p><strong>Supported Platforms:</strong> Windows, Linux, Mac</p>
<p><strong>API Interfaces:</strong> Python, Java, C#, Ruby,
VB6 and Perl</p>
<p><strong>Support:</strong> <a class="reference external"
href="http://www.osgeo.org/search_profile">http://www.osgeo.org/search_profile</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Director
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.lisasoft.com">http://www.lisasoft.com</a>
</pre>
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