[Gdal-dev] Building a customized raster format in ArcGIS 9.2using GDAL

[Frank Warmerdam]

Peng Gao wrote:
> ArcGIS uses gdalplugins directory under the directory containing the
> currently 
> running .exe ("ArcGIS\Bin\gdalplugins").
> 
> We have found that, while there are success stories, it's hard to build 
> a plugin using standard GDAL release,
> and make it work with the gdal*.dll distributed with a particular ArcGIS
> release, because of header mismatch, and etc. We plan to make the
> matching include and lib files available for download if there is enough
> interest. Also on Windows ArcGIS 92, and its GDAL library, are built using 
 > MSVC7.

Gao,

It would be desirable, in my mind, if we could have ArcGIS using a build
of GDAL that is ABI compatible with a stable release of GDAL and matching
the build configuration of the binaries distributed by the GDAL project.

For instance, if ArcGIS 9.3 uses the 1.4-esri branch of GDAL, built with
vc7 as we use for the GDAL binary builds, it should be possible to drop
any of the plugins distributed with GDAL's win32 builds.  Also, the
gdal win32 sdk could be easily used to develop additional plugins.

I'm also hoping to get MapGuide OS distributed with GDAL builds
corresponding to our "official release binaries" for the same reason.

After largely ignoring the issue of win32 binary releases targetted
at a particular stable ABI (such as GDAL 1.4) I'm now growing quite
keen on the idea, and the value of being able to prepare plugins
seperately and use them widely.

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