[gdal-dev] OGR and measure support revisited

[Frank Warmerdam]

Ari Jolma wrote:
> This issue was up last time 1,5 years ago:
> 
> http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/gdal-dev/2006-October/010307.html
> 
> The new SFSQL spec is available now I believe (06-104r3). Are there any 
> news?

Ari,

I would like to implement Simple Features 1.2 in OGR in GDAL 1.7.
Unfortunately I have not had any client interest in supporting such an
effort, so unless this materializes at some point it is not clear that I
will be able to do the implement all by myself.

Potentially this is something the PSC could assign to the paid maintainer
if we felt it was strategic enough.  Or perhaps others will come forward
to take it on.  Mostly simple features 1.2 seems to require:

  o Adding measure to all the geometry handling.
  o Upgrading the WKT/WKB handling to support the new formats (2.5 D is handled
    incompatibly to what we have done!)
  o Adding the new PolyhedralSurface and TIN geometry classes.

On the WKT/WKB point, we are looking at building a standalone C++ library as
for use in Ingres that would support efficient conversion between WKT and
WKB geometry formats, including full SF 1.2 support.  If this goes ahead, it
might be nice to contemplate using it in OGR as well instead of having all our
own WKT handling.

So, various thoughts, but little action so far.

I would note an SF 1.2 upgrade would require a pretty detailed RFC, as there
is lots of care needed to minimize backward compatability problems.

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