[Gdal-dev] Shapefile spatial indexing

[Frank Warmerdam]

On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 09:16:31 -0700, Ethan Alpert
<ealpert at digitalglobe.com> wrote:
> 
> So I if I read this right does building a new gdal automatically give me
> support for this in mapserver?

Ethan, 

Yes, though it only affects shapefile use via CONNECTIONTYPE
OGR. If you use the default connection type (direct shapefiles)
then .qix spatial indexes were already supported.  This work
was done mainly for those writing apps on top of OGR that need
fast spatial queries.  Those concerned with performance in
MapServer don't normally use OGR for shapefiles. 

My main objective in having the spatial indexes compatible was
so that folks using shapefiles in different contexts wouldn't need
to have multiple spatial indexes.  It is already unfortunate that we
can't all use the ESRI approach since they chose not to document
that aspect of the format. 

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    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent