[gdal-dev] Tickets 2385 and 2683 (ECW and MrSID plugins)

[Frank Warmerdam]

Francesco Paolo Lovergine wrote:
> On Sat, May 02, 2009 at 11:18:34AM -0400, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
>> I'm going to close these tickets as WONTFIX, though folks are welcome to use
>> the patches for their own use.
>>
>> I think it is more appropriate to improve the "in tree" plugin configuration
>> and makefile logic rather than pushing drivers out as their own packages.
>>
> 
> The reason for those patches is having an independent compilation unit. This is
> the only purpose for a plugin hack for ecw/mrsid, i.e. to solve a
> licensing problem. But for that, I agree that a more general approach to
> support a plugin mechanism (possibly with a versioning support) would be nice. 
> Are you thinking to something like an apache-like mechanism to support DSO modules?
> It would be useful defining the constraints for that you are thinking.

Frankie,

I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by "independent compilation
unit" or why exactly the licensing issues of ecw and mrsid make them special
with regard to how the plugin gets compiled.

I don't know how apache handles DSO modules, so I can't comment on whether
things would evolve in that direction.

I am imagining adding configure options to specify particular drivers should
be build and installed as plugins.

So in addition to --with-ecw=<path to ecw sdk> there might also be
--with-ecw-as-plugin which would cause the ECW driver to be built and
installed as a plugin.

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