[GRASS5] Database linking question

[Rich Shepard]

On Tue, 2 Jan 2001, Eric G . Miller wrote:

> Yes, but the functionality is *really* limited.  I hate the idea of
> having to have two different systems managing one logical data set.
> Besides, some people may not want to run PostgreSQL for some reason or
> other.  I'm just looking for a fairly basic database library system that
> could be tightly hooked into GRASS for basic attribute management.  I'm
> not looking for a multiuser/daemon server kind of thing.  I strongly
> believe such an addition would be a great benefit to the functionality
> of GRASS.  It also would make it easier to move/share data since all the
> attribute data would be located physically with the spatial data.
> Hopefully, such a system would be able to make it possible to
> transparently "tie" spatial data to external systems through something
> like the dbmi interface without the module author having to worry about
> handling that scenario.  But GRASS needs at least a rudimentary
> attribute database system *natively* to be able to pull that off.

  Ah! Now I understand. Well, in my naivete, I believe you've hit on the
reason raster GIS are easy and inexpensive to build and vector GIS cost so
bloody much. ESRI has either a patent or some other very tight lock on their
vector data structures. AFAIK, everyone who's developed a vector-GIS has
rolled their own data structures (based on quadtrees or something similar),
but written their own dbms.

  Please keep us informed on your search!

Rich

Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President

                       Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
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