[mapserver-dev] PROJ4 and EPSG database

[Stephen Woodbridge]

I like the idea :), but I guess you already knew that!

But I also think we probably need a quick fix for mapserver, and if we 
move forward on these other fronts, then we will probably want to 
eventually replace what mapserver is using for the new standardized? 
engine. So again, this speaks to a quick fix for mapserver even if it 
does not solve all problems, because it might get tossed in a year +-.

-Steve


Daniel Morissette wrote:
> As we all know, PROJ4's processing of init files (the infamous epsg 
> file) is quite slow and a few options have been discussed on this list 
> to solve this, going from optimizations directly in PROJ to caching in 
> MapServer or even having MapServer use its own optimized database.
> 
> While working on WMS 1.3.0 we have come accross another need that 
> PROJ4's current init file setup doesn't address: the ability to lookup 
> extra information about a given SRS such as the axis order.
> 
> That gives one more argument for leaving the current PROJ4 init stuff 
> behind and developing an optimized (but simple) SRS database system.
> 
> I'd hate to do something specific to MapServer, so perhaps we could 
> develop a simple API that sits well on top of PROJ4 and that could be 
> used by all PROJ4-based applications to provide a shared projection 
> database format and API. We could even look at the database format used 
> by other systems such as GeoTools or GeoServer (I have no clue what they 
> use, just thinking out loud) so that we try sharing as much as possible 
> with them. I'd like to discuss that approach at the Toronto code sprint.
> 
> This is turning into a question for the MetaCRS project, but I wanted to 
>  run the idea by the MapServer group first since we are the ones with 
> the most pressing need for this.
> 
> Daniel