[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: idea for an OSGeo project -- a new, open data format

[Frank Warmerdam]

Landon Blake wrote:
> P.S. - This is probably a crazy idea, but has anyone ever considered
> talking to ESRI about cooperating on an update Shapefile spec?

Landon,

I believe ESRI sees the "file based geodatabase" as filling roughly the
role that the Shapefile played in the ArcView 3.x days.  Of course it isn't
clear that it will be very open and interoperable with other software packages.

I can't imagine a "upgrade" to shapefiles that would satisfy all our
requirements that has anything but the name in common with the existing
shapefiles.  So why drag ESRI into it?

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org