[Liblas-commits] hg: doc updates, remove old release plan
liblas-commits at liblas.org
liblas-commits at liblas.org
Fri Feb 11 11:24:19 EST 2011
details: http://hg.liblas.orghg/rev/b45dda26eee7
changeset: 2853:b45dda26eee7
user: Howard Butler <hobu.inc at gmail.com>
date: Fri Feb 11 10:24:14 2011 -0600
description:
doc updates, remove old release plan
diffstat:
doc/development/index.txt | 1 -
doc/development/release_plan.txt | 190 ---------------------------------------
doc/index.txt | 10 +-
doc/lastools.txt | 17 +++-
4 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 198 deletions(-)
diffs (295 lines):
diff -r 9da6112e51a1 -r b45dda26eee7 doc/development/index.txt
--- a/doc/development/index.txt Fri Feb 11 08:48:18 2011 -0600
+++ b/doc/development/index.txt Fri Feb 11 10:24:14 2011 -0600
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
format_elements
Motivation <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc>
2010 Annual Report <annual_report_2010>
- Release Plan <release_plan>
RFCs <rfc/index>
diff -r 9da6112e51a1 -r b45dda26eee7 doc/development/release_plan.txt
--- a/doc/development/release_plan.txt Fri Feb 11 08:48:18 2011 -0600
+++ /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
@@ -1,194 +0,0 @@
-.. _release_plan:
-
-******************************************************************************
-libLAS 1.6.0 Release Notes and Schedule
-******************************************************************************
-
-
-:Author: Howard Butler
-:Contact: hobu.inc at gmail dot com
-:Date: 10/12/2010
-
-.. contents::
- :depth: 3
- :backlinks: none
-
-Even though there has not been a major release of libLAS since April of 2009,
-development has continued on the library. A number of new features, updates,
-and bug fixes have been developed for the next libLAS release, to be called
-`libLAS 1.6`. This section outlines some of the work that has (or will) gone
-on.
-
-Major features
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-The following are upcoming major features for libLAS 1.6.
-
-Significant internal refactoring of C++ reading/writing code
-..............................................................................
-
-The C++ reader and writer code of libLAS was a bit inflexible, and contained
-significant duplication. Giant updates would be required to the code as the
-ASPRS LAS standard committee adds new versions of the
-specification. Additionally, the old code's design was a bit rigid for
-adding more generic things.
-
-The reduction in duplication means going to only one place to make changes to
-the code. In addition to not repeating ourselves, it provides us more
-flexibility to add new features and extensibility to allow the reader and
-writers to be overridden by user code.
-
-Rudimentary LAS 1.3 support
-..............................................................................
-
-Support for reading and writing LAS 1.3 *point* data is not provided in
-libLAS 1.6. Support for reading point formats 4 or 5 is not yet complete,
-however.
-
-Generic interfaces
-..............................................................................
-
-A number of generic interfaces have been added to libLAS to support dynamic
-polymorphism. See <liblas/liblas.hpp> for the C++ interfaces. By implementing
-these interfaces, you can add your own reader/writer implementations as well
-as provide custom filtering and transformation capability.
-
-Schema description support
-..............................................................................
-
-Though it is specifically allowed by the standard but not widely implemented,
-it is possible to store extra data attached to each point after the requisite
-PointFormat data are stored. There is neither a regularized way to describe
-these data nor a way to capture metadata about this. To this end, I have
-proposed an XML schema document that could be stored in a VLR as well as
-schema-aware reader and writer implementations that can utilize that VLR to
-work with the data. See <https://lidarbb.cr.usgs.gov/index.php?showtopic=9075>
-for more details on the initial proposal of schema support.
-
-Alternative formats
-..............................................................................
-
-Support for reading the TerraSolid bin format as well as writing the
-Oracle Point Cloud format will be provided for libLAS 1.6, but this code will
-be moving to a new home shortly. See `libPC`_ for more details on these
-developments
-
-Generic spatial indexing
-..............................................................................
-
-A octree-based spatial index was developed for libLAS to speed up random,
-bounding-box-based queries to LAS files. It is released as part of libLAS 1.6,
-but its full implementation within the library is not yet complete. The index
-can store its data within VLRs (requires a file rewrite) in addition to
-in a file alongside the .las file.
-
-Rewritten :ref:`lasinfo <lasinfo>` and :ref:`las2las <las2las>`
-..............................................................................
-
-:ref:`lasinfo <lasinfo>` and :ref:`las2las <las2las>` have been completely
-rewritten to take advantage of faster access and summary methods within the
-libLAS C++ API. In addition to nearly double the speed of the previous
-libLAS-provided lasinfo and las2las implementations, both applications
-gained a number of features including much more expressive filtering and
-more detailed header and file transformation. The old versions of :ref:`lasinfo <lasinfo_old>`
-and :ref:`las2las <las2las_old>` are still available to people who have
-embedded them in processes and applications. They are now called ``lasinfo-old`` and
-``las2las-old``.
-
-Migration to CMake
-..............................................................................
-
-
-libLAS has migrated to CMake to manage compilation. See `libLAS Compilation
-<http://liblas.org/compilation.html>`__ for specific details how to use CMake
-to build libLAS from source.
-
-Minor features
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-Caching reader
-..............................................................................
-
-A reader implementation that provides data caching will be provided at
-libLAS 1.6. If your data reading involves reading the data in multiple passes
-through the file, you can utilize the cached reader to cache the points
-(up to the size of the entire file) for faster repeated and random access.
-
-Seek support
-..............................................................................
-
-It is now possible to seek to a specific point in the file and start reading
-points. This can significantly speed up the "random sampling" access strategy
-where one starts reading a run of points at a specific location in the file
-and then moves to a different location.
-
-Classification class
-..............................................................................
-
-A class is now provided to abstract the LAS classification value and help
-interpret the bit fields that are present for synthetic, key point, and withheld
-types.
-
-Vertical datum description support
-..............................................................................
-
-libLAS, in combination with a very recent GDAL/proj.4, can be used to preserve
-and describe the vertical datum GeoTIFF keys that are present in LAS files.
-
-:ref:`lasblock`
-..............................................................................
-
-:ref:`lasblock` is a command-line utility for generating chips of LAS data
-that are as full as possible, square as possible, and made in a reasonable
-amount of time (chips at a rate of ~1 million points per second).
-
-Faster binary i/o
-..............................................................................
-
-libLAS gained a more savvy implementation for its binary i/o which should
-provide some significant performance improvements.
-
-
-Release Schedule
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-We expect to have at least two beta release before the final release of libLAS 1.6.
-
-The following dates are approximate:
-
-* Beta 1: 10/12/2010
-* Beta 2: 11/1/2010
-* 1.6.0: 11/15/2010
-
-libPC
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-There exists a need in the LiDAR and laser scanning fields for a library much
-like `GDAL`_ to provide translation to and from various formats. Further
-development with libLAS has caused it to currently accrete support for reading
-TerraSolid .bin files (:ref:`ts2las`) and write the `Oracle Point Cloud`_
-(:ref:`las2oci`) format into Oracle databases. Additionally, there are a
-multitude of other formats with similar characteristics that would be
-excellent candidates for participating in a GDAL-like library for point cloud
-data. These include:
-
-* LAS
-* `QFIT`_
-* `Oracle Point Cloud`_
-* `BAG`_
-* Fixed schema CSV/text
-* Variable schema CSV/text
-* ...
-
-To that end, I will be embarking on developing a new library in the style of
-GDAL to provide support for reading and writing (to varying levels of
-capability) these formats. The plan is for it to be bootstrapped after the
-1.6 release of libLAS.
-
-.. _`GDAL`: http://www.gdal.org
-.. _`QFIT`: http://nsidc.org/data/ilatm1b.html
-.. _`Oracle Point Cloud`: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/appdev.111/b28400/sdo_pc_pkg_ref.htm
-.. _`BAG`: http://www.opennavsurf.org/papers/ons_fsd.pdf
-
-
-
diff -r 9da6112e51a1 -r b45dda26eee7 doc/index.txt
--- a/doc/index.txt Fri Feb 11 08:48:18 2011 -0600
+++ b/doc/index.txt Fri Feb 11 10:24:14 2011 -0600
@@ -22,10 +22,10 @@
libLAS focuses almost completely on providing an easy-to-program-with library
for software developers wishing to implement the LAS specification in their
own software. Second, libLAS exists to provide a truly open source library
-(see :ref:`license` for terms ) -- `LAStools`_ has no explicit licensing terms.
-Third, libLAS exists to provide advanced functionality and concentrate almost
-solely on the specification -- not LiDAR data processing in general. libLAS a
-building block for developers to use to implement their own LiDAR data
+(see :ref:`license` for terms ) -- `LAStools`_ has no explicit licensing terms and
+is merely `free-as-in-beer`_ with usage restrictions.
+libLAS a
+building block for developers looking to implement their own LiDAR data
processing when working with ASPRS LAS data.
For more information, :ref:`this document <lastools_liblas>` provides a
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@
-
+.. _`free-as-in-beer`: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_Libre#.22Free_beer.22_vs_.22free_speech.22_distinction
diff -r 9da6112e51a1 -r b45dda26eee7 doc/lastools.txt
--- a/doc/lastools.txt Fri Feb 11 08:48:18 2011 -0600
+++ b/doc/lastools.txt Fri Feb 11 10:24:14 2011 -0600
@@ -13,11 +13,17 @@
affixed to the source code, and it must be assumed that the software is currently
"All Rights Reserved" and individually licensable.
+.. note::
+ 2/11/2011: Martin has started to release the library that focusses on
+ reading and writing LAS data (not the tools or utilities) in the form of
+ an LGPL library. You can find out more information `here
+ <http://www.cs.unc.edu/~isenburg/lastools/download/laslib_README.txt>`__.
+
Utilities
..............................................................................
Because libLAS' focus is on being a software development library to enable
-LAS processing, and not so much a processing library per se, libLAS *does*
+LAS processing, and not so much a processing library per se, libLAS *did*
re-implement many of the `LAStools`_ :ref:`command-line utilities <utilities>`
to provide utility and test the functionality of the library. libLAS' port
of these utilities will always lag LAStools implementations, however, and if
@@ -25,6 +31,11 @@
look there. The port that libLAS contains of the LAStools has been blessed
by the Isenburg and Shewchuk as BSD-licensed.
+Additionally, the libLAS version of the LAStools utilities are no longer
+command-line compatible. So while they may have some common heritage, and
+the two packages copy each other in terms of features and behaviors, they
+are now quite divergent.
+
Which one to use for what
..............................................................................
@@ -32,7 +43,7 @@
* Manipulating LAS files directly in C, C++, Python, .NET, and Ruby (caveats
apply)
-* Embedding LAS read/write support in your own software
+* Embedding LAS read/write support in your own commercial software
* Plucking out first/last returns (:ref:`las2las` or do it yourself with
libLAS' programatic API)
* Reclassifying point data with your own algorithm(s)
@@ -43,6 +54,7 @@
* Reprojecting data from one coordinate system to another (vertical datum
transformation included soon!)
* Spatially indexing data for fast bounds lookup
+* Working in a commercial setting
Use LAStools for:
@@ -56,6 +68,7 @@
programatic API)
* Decimating data (thinning by removing points within a grid or window)
* Converting data between formats (1.0 <-> 1.2, etc)
+* Working in an academic or non-commercial setting
.. _`LAStools`: http://www.cs.unc.edu/~isenburg/lastools/
.. _`BSD license`: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
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