[GRASS5] Re: Named attribute support in GRASS

[Markus Neteler]

On Thu, Feb 07, 2002 at 05:37:26PM -0800, Eric G. Miller wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Feb 2002 14:43:08 -0500, Carl Worth <cworth at east.isi.edu> wrote:
> 
> >  > I'm considering writing a vector line module similar to d.vect.area, only
> >  > it'd be for drawing labelled lines in different colors via a similar
> >  > legend file (yea? nay? don't care?).
> > 
> > Eric,
> > 
> > Thanks for this excellent work.
> > 
> > I've been thinking, and it seems like a better long-term solution is
> > to move away from a new "legend file" and make better use of
> > attributes in GRASS.
> > 
> > I've been looking at the sites format, (I don't know how other formats
> > compare), and it does allow for named attribute columns, but the names
> > are rarely used in GRASS. Instead, the attributes are referenced by
> > index, (oddly, by an index specific to each attribute type).
> 
> I don't disagree with you about using attributes, but that functionality
> isn't available in GRASS 5.0 (only cat numbers and labels).  I wouldn't
> want to extend the sites format. IMHO, it should be thrown away as soon
> as possible and replaced with database tables.  Better point data
> support in 5.1 vectors will probably makes "sites" a thing of the
> past (I can hope can't I?).

Radim and me recently discussed this option as well. The sites
format should be eliminated and functionality moved to vector
points mostly stored in a DBMS table or simple DBF (which is already
supported).

Markus