[GRASSLIST:9261] Re: GRASS and ArcSDE

[David Finlayson]

On 11/30/05, David Finlayson <dfinlays at u.washington.edu> wrote:
> On 11/30/05, Māris Nartišs <maris.nartiss at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> ArcSDE only for clients look fast, on server side load is high ;)
> As I understand, ArcSDE is like PostGIS. It can have multiple backends
> (Oracle etc.), but MySQL/PostgreSQL are not supported.
>
> As ArcSDE follows OGC standarts, there should be no problem to connect
> with any app to it. I cant test it, as I have only raster data in my
> SDE.

Unfortunately, raster data is what I use primarily and it doesn't look
like that is supported by any ISO standard yet (hence no FOSS
implementation is available).

It sounds like it might be possible to get access to the vector data.
However. The standards page you linked to is an alphabet soup of
protocols and implementation specifications.

This aspect of GIS is starting to get so complicated we need a
specialist just to implement the back-end. One department I work with
hired a full time Oracle tech $$$ for 2 years to get their GIS
infrastructure up and running. This is crazy overhead for a scientist
like me.


> Fighting with monopoly isnt easy task. Some days a go I had discussion
> about new study programm for planing experts. Authors of this program
> where saying - its good what you can do with GRASS (pointing on my
> work), but we will by and teach only  ArcGIS. My reply, that we need
> to teach GIS and not usage of some app, was w/o any replys. Huh. They
> will have no money to by ArcGIS extensions, so brand new planing and
> GIS experts will have only basic knowledge how to use ArcView.
>

I am going to a meeting this afternoon where I expect the same blank
stares. I am developing a course on hydrologic and chemical modelling
that is supposed to be cross platform. One of the chemical modelers
used a "visual" modeling environment for windows at the request of our
director. He now wants to set this environment up in our computer
labs. I told him that the license to use the "visual" modeling
environment is $1500 per chair and there is no way it will run on Macs
or Unix. He was shocked. Hadn't even thought about that.

Now I get an email from him saying that he has talked to his
programmer and they have decided to port the code to C#. This code
needs to run (literally) thousands of iterations per time step. It
needs to run on Unix (where the hydro models are located) and it needs
to be fairly inexpensive for colleagues out of the country who don't
have our resources. And he picks C#...<bangs head on table>

--
David Finlayson
Marine Geology & Geophysics
School of Oceanography
Box 357940
University of Washington
Seattle, WA  98195-7940
USA

Office: Marine Sciences Building, Room 112
Phone: (206) 616-9407
Web: http://students.washington.edu/dfinlays