[Liblas-devel] workshop to define LAS 1.4 (was Full waveform lidar data)

[Howard Butler]

On Mar 9, 2010, at 12:07 PM, Mateusz Loskot wrote:

> Martin Isenburg wrote:
>> that is the sentiment i have heard on the showfloor everywhere
>> (except in front of the leice booth) (-;
>> i suggested to everyone to organize a worksop and create LAS 1.4 and
>> do it right.
> 
> Amen to that Martin!
> 
>> LAS 1.3 was a dud and everyone knows is.
> 
> I did risk a bit of prophecy ([1], [2]) some time ago.
> I'd risk it again saying that the industry is not taking LAS seriously
> by adopting it widely and in compatible way, because of that problem
> you point.
> 
> So, the industry does "not much", but enthusiasts like libLAS project
> are wasting their precious time putting makeup on every new
> head of growing monster.
> 
> [1] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/liblas-devel/2009-April/000478.html
> [2] https://lidarbb.cr.usgs.gov/index.php?showtopic=6385&st=0&p=7712

Additionally,  I don't think libLAS is going to implement LAS 1.3 in any near future.  I will likely implement reading LAS 1.0-1.2 -style points out of 1.3 files, but I highly doubt we'll implement the full 1.3 spec in any sort of waveform capacity unless someone from the community dumps a giant patch on us.  If they go so far as to do that, they own that sandwich they just took a bite out of too :)

This also brings up the question of what to name the next libLAS release.  We were marching along with specification/release parity (1.1, 1.2, etc), but our next release is scheduled to be called 1.3 and it's not going to have LAS 1.3 support.  

How about libLAS 1.8?

Howard