[Gdal-dev] spatial data

[Matt Wilkie]

Saurabh Data wrote:
> Dear readers
> 
> I am a student doing research on "spatial databass; an analysis of open
> source systems". so I need to find open source system which support
> spatial content.
[...]
> I am still searching for more systems , which might be of any help.

A good place to start is http://freegis.org/
*Everything* listed there is both open source and spatially aware.

> Can anyone give me a brief idea of what does GDAL does and how does it
> fit in the context of spatial data.

In a nutshell, gdal is a spatial data translator. It reads data in most 
formats and converts it to a well known flavour of your choice. GDAL is 
for raster data (images, dems); the sister OGR project is for vector 
data (lines, points, polygons). At some point OGR and GDAL will likely 
be completely merged together.

cheers,

-- 
matt wilkie
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