Native vs OGR db drivers (Re: A MapServer 5.0 Branch?) (Re: RFC 17: Dynamic Arr

[Frank Warmerdam]

Steve Lime wrote:
> I wonder if one could render, query, etc... directly off the OGR internal structures thus saving
> a translation to a shapeObj. Man, that would be disruptive (and a lot of work) but could move 
> a ton of code out to OGR and perhaps help with performance.
> 
> Had OGR been around when MapServer was initially written that might have been the case. There's
> a reason shapeObj's look similar to the structs originally found in shapelib.

Steve,

I think skipping the translation to shapeObj would not be huge performance
boost, and the architectural cost would be prohibitive.  It would be
interesting to review the performance impact of going through OGR for
some stuff like SDE.  I suspect in common cases it would not be that
significant or that there might be other things we could do to optimize
that would a broader win, and less disruptive.

Generally speaking I don't have a problem with having a few different
datasources though there is a cost in duplication and confusion in this.
I wouldn't mind seeing SDE through OGR replacing mapsde.c for instance.
Or winding down the direct mysql support if can replicate the join
capability (which I think I will need to research).

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org