[geos-devel] A word about Javisms

[Paul Ramsey]

On Mar 23, 2006, at 7:03 PM, Mateusz Łoskot wrote:

> What does GEOS compatibility with JTS mean?

It means that porting concepts, bug fixes, and new algorithms from  
JTS to GEOS not be made difficult by differences in the code bases.   
Why?  Because the limiting factor in the development of GEOS is not C+ 
+ coding expertise, it is computational geometry and geometric  
algorithm expertise.  We are lucky to be able to sponge off of Martin  
Davis' work in JTS, and in particular his expertise in the subject  
matter area.  The years of experience Martin has are not easily  
replicable, so even when we have clients asking us for improvements  
specifically in PostGIS/GEOS (and we do), it makes sense to have  
Martin do them in JTS and then port them, when they are algorithmic  
and conceptual in nature.

> Does possible redesign to C++ style will make GEOS incompatible
> with JTS in any way?

That is in the eyes of the person who will have to do the ports,  
Sandro.  So as long as it is still clear enough to him, it works for  
me.  If you want a flavour of it, diff the JTS source from 1.7 to the  
present and then see if you can figure out where/how the changes  
effect GEOS.

> What about idea to make GEOS compatible with JTS on the level of
> interface but not implementation?

It is actually the implementation which matters, in this case.

> Finally, GEOS is a C++ application but how to make C++ API stable?

Is the API not stable?  (Well, if you guys stop reorganizing code and  
namespaces, it will get stable, but I assume this is a one-time spasm.)

P.

>
> I'd love to hear your opinion about those issues.
>
> Best regards
> -- 
> Mateusz Łoskot
> http://mateusz.loskot.net
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