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<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Hi , </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">I't very frustrating, each time I would like to use OSGeo software (GDAL/OGR, QGIS, …) they don't support oracle database. Every time, everything should be recompiled from source with oracle support enabled. A long and not easy process… </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">The reason usually evoked for this situation, is that Oracle build needs Oracle files that aren't freely redistributable. Ok It's a good reason.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">I found a library, called OCILIB (<U></U></FONT><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Times New Roman"><<A HREF="http://orclib.sourceforge.net/">http://orclib.sourceforge.net/</A>></FONT></U><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">), that enable your software to dynamically connect to your oracle database. This library does not require any oracle library to compile. It's available on any platform where oracle client is available and it licensed with LGPL.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">So it seems possible to create an OGR driver for Oracle, based on OCILIB, that doesn't require any Oracle copyrighted files.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">So what I propose is to develop, with the help of any volunteer, this kind of driver.</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">But before going further, I would like to know if it seems to you a good way to have Oracle support available by default in any OSGeo software ?</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"> </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Depending of your answers, I 'll come back to ask you how it's the best way to do that ? </FONT></SPAN>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Thanks a lot</FONT></SPAN>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">Nicolas Simon</FONT></SPAN>
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