[GRASS-user] advantages/disadvantages of using a database

[Moritz Lennert]

On 25/03/07 16:35, Gerald Nelson wrote:
> I've been seeing the recent traffic about setting up and using
> postgresql, which it seems not exactly straightforward. Is there a
> document somewhere that explains the reasons why one might want to
> move to using a database? Is it data management, speed, convenience
> (after getting it set up), something else?

For me its data management and convenience. Being able to easily combine 
different data tables (including through the use of views) really makes 
life much easier than having to edit dbf files in OpenOffice.

In terms of speed, this actually really depends on the commands, but the 
db drivers often introduce quite some overhead. Quite a while ago, I 
actually posted a revised version of d.vect.chart which accessed the 
data differently and showed a clear speed-up 
(http://grass.itc.it/pipermail/grass5/2006-October/026503.html).

Another advantage of more sophisticated backends than dbf is that you 
have access to a much richer set of SQL commands.

Moritz