Vector Data and SVG

[Stephen Lime]

I've looked for years for alternatives to GD especially in the vector world and have
come up empty. There aren't even any decent raster libs out there. There are some
interesting possibilities though. PDFLIB is a freebie (for non-commercial use I think)
PDF creation library. I've been using it with MapScript with some success, but only
for final printable product delivery. I know there are some folks in Germany using 
MapScript to produce SVG data.

Extending MapServer wouldn't be that hard. GD is isolated in just a few places, actually
a whopping 4 functions. I wouldn't want to extend GD, rather I'd start over. I wrote a 
24-bit version of GD years ago but never actually integrated it.

Steve

Stephen Lime
Internet Applications Analyst

Minnesota DNR
500 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-297-2937

>>> Daniel Morissette <morissette at dmsolutions.on.ca> 10/18/00 12:22PM >>>
"Doyon, Jean-Francois" wrote:
> 
> Maybe creating a modular type of interface for mapserver output would be
> usefull.
> This might allow for a variety of both raster and vector output, from gif's
> to SVG.
> "Plug-ins" or "modules" could then be developped when new formats or
> standards
> come out !
> 

I like the idea of extending MapServer to support multiple types of
output... the idea of generating Flash output has been running at the
back of my head for quite a while now.  I've also given a quick look at
SVG and the Flash (SWF) SDK in the last months but never got much
further than doing some reading and downloading of the SDK.  I'm sure we
could build very cool and interactive web applications using Flash but I
haven't explored those possibilities yet, surprising given the fact that
our graphic designer has been bugging me about that for months! :)

I agree with what you suggest completely JF: if MapServer is to be
extended to support output to something else than GD, then it should be
done through an abstraction layer that allows easy development of new
output formats, something like OGR, but targetted at output.

I haven't done any research on that front, but there may already be some
libs that do exactly that.  Does anyone know such an open source lib? 
If not, then maybe that an extension to GD to support vector-based
output could be an idea... there are so many apps that already use GD
and would benefit from vector output as well that it might be worth
exploring that area. (I'm just thinking loud here!)

Anyways... my own 0.02$ (+ GST)
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------
 Daniel Morissette             morissette at dmsolutions.on.ca 
               http://www.dmsolutions.on.ca/ 
------------------------------------------------------------
  Don't put for tomorrow what you can do today, because if 
      you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow.