[gdal-dev] Curve support in OGR

[Frank Warmerdam]

Andreas Neumann wrote:
> right - we still use an old commercial version of Mapguide. We may move to
> the newer open-source version (or Mapserver) in the future.
> 
> But this is not my main concern. The main concern is being able to work
> with curves (mainly circular arcs) across the whole OSGeo tool chain,
> primarily also in Desktop GIS.
> 
> Many desktop GIS build on top of OGR (e.g. the one we use: QGIS). They
> won't bother with curves until their underlying base infrastructure
> supports curves.
> 
> I know it is a probably a huge effort to include curve support in OGR and
> won't happen tomorrow ... However, since more and more data formats and
> applications now start to support curves, it would make sense that OGR
> would support them as well, esp. since it is at the technical foundation
> of so many other tools.
> 
> I know it should be financially supported by the users, so I wonder if we
> could start a project like the WKTRaster project in Postgis [1], where the
> necessary work packages for curve support are laid out, as well as
> potential programmers and sponsors. People/organizations can assign
> themselves as sponsors for certain parts of the whole work then.
> 
> The whole thing of course also concerns GEOS and Postgis.

Andreas,

I would like to upgrade OGR to support curves and generally to support
a broader geometry model in line with Simple Features 1.1 and possible
some of the ISO geometry types.  However, this is a substantial effort
and I believe it would require financial support.  I have not had
significant client interest in such an upgrade myself, nor have the GDAL
sponsors spoken strongly on this point.

So, I'm basically at the point of waiting for funded interest in the
topic to grow.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
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