a question about generating map data structure

[Shawn Zhu]

HI, Dear all,
    
    I just joined this emailist and was excited to find such a group. I am not 
alone :).
    I am doing some GIS stuff and have a question.
    I am trying to develop some algorithm similar to dijkstra, and have 
finished debugging with my testing hand-built graph. Now I want to test this 
algorithm with real map data.
    The problem is I don't know how to convert a map data(e.g. shape file) to a 
data structure(like graph node matrix/linked list) I can use. Is there any way 
or software I can use? Can anybody give me any hint? Thanks a lot.


   Shawn Zhu.
   July 16, 2007