[Mapserver-users] Fastest Data Format

[Shannon Scott]

Ed,
Thank you for taking an interest.
Please let me know if this is not the type of info you are interested in.

RedHat Linux 7.2
I plan to use these national datasets.

Census Tracts  - poly
States ( detailed )  - poly
Parks  - poly
3 Hydro layers ( generalized for scale )  - poly
Counties  - poly
Rail  - line
Local Roads - line
State Routes - line
US Routes - line
Highways - line
Cities/Towns  - point

Much of the data originally came from the census tiger files, but has been
modified.  We query the City point layer for County Seat and State Capital,
and apply the appropriate symbology; the other layers are not queried...
just rendered ( with the exception of the tracts ).  The data is stored in
decimal degrees, but rendered in the local UTM zone.

Our application allows the user to perform their own analysis, and then see
the results.  In the software I currently use ( SDE/ ArcIMS/Oracle ), we
need to create a table in the database to render the result map ( Tracts
Layer ).  I think I will need to create the table with mapserver also, so I
am looking at moving to PostgreSQL DB because of the cost savings over
Oracle.

Do I need to create a table for mapserver to render the values?
Can mapserver join a table from an RDBMS with a shapefile, or does the
spatial data also need to be in the RDBMS?

Thank you for any help.
Shannon

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed McNierney" <ed at topozone.com>
To: "Shannon Scott" <sscott at gwi.net>; <Mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 6:02 PM
Subject: RE: [Mapserver-users] Fastest Data Format


> Shannon -
>
> Absolutely, guaranteed the fastest - no data at all.  It renders in zero
time on even the slowest machines!
>
> Seriously, my joke is meant to point out that your question is meaningless
without some requirements placed on that data.  As I've long pointed out,
any software can be made to run arbitrarily quickly provided it is not
required to give the correct result.  Adding that "correct result"
requirement will slow things down depending on what that result is.
>
> Can you describe a bit of how you're intending to use MapServer?  That
will let us all define the problem and give you some good advice.  Thanks!
>
>      - Ed
>
> Ed McNierney
> President and Chief Mapmaker
> TopoZone.com / Maps a la carte, Inc.
> ed at topozone.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Shannon Scott [mailto:sscott at gwi.net]
> Sent: Thu 1/2/2003 4:23 PM
> To: Mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> Cc:
> Subject: [Mapserver-users] Fastest Data Format
>
>
> Hello,
> Does anyone know which data format performs the best?  For Rendering?  For
Queries?
> I am really wondering about shapefiles versus postgreSQL and PostGIS...
but I also am curious how SDE with Oracle, and Oracle Spatial rate against
the others.
>
> Any Info is appreciated.
> Thank You
> Shannon
>
>
>