do I need postgis?

[Tyler Mitchell]

> I want to show a gps tracking line on a map and also some cities. I want
> to fetch the data via php mapscript from mysql and draw it dynamicly in
> the map.
>
> Is it faster to fetch via a map file and postgis?

In case "faster" is not your only concern - consider that you can also use
PostGIS with a geometry engine (aka GEOS) that can create buffers, run
overlap analysis, etc.  So while general data management in PostGIS is nice,
it's actually awesome at helping you manipulate data and create new data from
queries.  I can't over-sell the benefit of having all those capabilities
rolled into one PostgreSQL database and accessible via SQL.

For example, I'm guessing that you could create a query or new table that
shows the closest waypoint to a city - or show waypoints that are within a
certain distance of others - all using SQL in PostGIS.

Consider the power of PostGIS :)

Tyler