[GRASS-dev] Vector file naming

[Brad Douglas]

On Thu, 2006-09-07 at 13:35 +0200, Markus Neteler wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 07, 2006 at 11:12:18AM +0000, Brad Douglas wrote:
> > GRASS 6.3.cvs (hamilton2):/usr/src/grass6 > r.to.vect in=elizabeth.los
> > out=elizabeth.los feature=area
> > Illegal vector map name <elizabeth.los>. Character <.> not allowed.
> > ERROR: Map name is not SQL compliant.
> > 
> > How do file names conflict with SQL92?  I thought SQL92 only applied to
> > file contents.  Is this also being used as a workaround for DBF
> > limitations?  What I'm getting at is: Why is '.' not allowed?  Doing a
> > quick archive search failed to illuminate any light bulbs in the
> > immediate vicinity.
> 
> Hi Brad,
> 
> AFAIK '.' is reserved for joins. '_' will work. 
> 
> See
> http://grass.itc.it/grass63/manuals/html63_user/sql.html
> -> NOTES
> 
> It would be nice to have the naiming constraints relaxed but
> I am not sure if that's really possible.

'_' is also reserved for matching, so that can't be it.

Maybe a better question is: Why doesn't GRASS distinguish between tables
and files (database)?  I would much prefer to have GRASS automatically
substitute '_' for '.' in the table name so I can keep consistent naming
conventions across rasters and vectors.  It's a usability issue and
somewhat annoying. :-)

I guess the real question is: How big of a job would this be?  Radim?
If it isn't an overwhelming job, I'd like to propose it for 7.x.


-- 
Brad Douglas <rez touchofmadness com>                      KB8UYR
Address: 37.493,-121.924 / WGS84    National Map Corps #TNMC-3785