[gdal-dev] RE: mrsid_lidar -> mrsid

[Kirk McKelvey]

Even,

Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, starting with v8.0, the MrSID raster and lidar SDKs are packaged together.  This is not to say they are unified - in fact the two SDKs are literally just in there sitting next to each other.  Nevertheless, they are intended to be used together for full treatment of .sid files, and will only grow closer together in future releases.

So my first concern is just for people using the MrSID v8.0 SDK to get full support for MrSID (i.e., raster and lidar) without having to configure two drivers.  Strictly speaking this could be addressed without merging the drivers, simply by updating the build scripts and makefiles (e.g., by searching for a MRSID_LIDAR_DIR if MRSID_DIR is set).  Doing this would be sufficient for the short term and I think achievable for 1.8.  I would preserve the ability to build with past versions of the MrSID SDK and with separate raster/lidar SDKs.

I still would like to look at merging the drivers, but as you said there is not much shared code so this is a longer-term project.  More thoughts on this after the holidays... (and others welcomed in the meantime).

Kirk.

-----Message d'origine-----
De : Even Rouault [mailto:even.rouault at mines-paris.org] 
Envoyé : Thursday, December 23, 2010 1:00 AM
À : Kirk McKelvey
Cc : gdal-dev at lists.osgeo.org
Objet : Re: mrsid_lidar -> mrsid

Kirk,

I have no strong objection, but I'm not sure what the advantage is. Could you
explain the rationale for it ? As far as I can see, MrSID and MG4Lidar drivers
don't share any common code. And I have the feeling that trying to fold them can
potentially lead to issues with the build system due to their dependency on
separate libraries.

The MrSID and JP2MrSID drivers are indeed folded in the same "driver", but they
share a lot of code and both depend on the same third-party lib. With the
MG4Lidar driver, it is different since it links with another lib.

Or is this move done in the context of the GeoExpress v8.0 SDK that if I
understand well can read both raster and lidar files ? If so, will the MG4Lidar
driver require GeoExpress v8.0 SDK or could it be used with the separate LiDAR
SDK 1.1 ? /me a bit confused by all those libraries ;-)

Ah, and what is the timetable objective ? For GDAL 1.8.0 or 1.9.0 ? If for GDAL
1.8.0, the move should be done pretty quickly as the plan was to cut off a first
beta very soon.

Best regards,

Even