[mapserver-users] Mapserver and GDB files [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[William Kyngesburye]

On Sep 23, 2008, at 12:51 AM, Roppola, Antti - BRS wrote:

> ESRI will provide full and open access to the geodatabase using the  
> following methods:
> 	• A free and open API to the file geodatabase. * The file  
> geodatabase was introduced at ArcGIS 9.2. While ESRI would ideally  
> like to open the file geodatabase format in a manner similar to what  
> we did for shapefiles when we released ArcView 2, geodatabases are  
> complex and can be easily corrupted outside the ArcGIS  
> environment.   Instead, we plan to engineer a high performing and  
> well documented API that developers can freely embed in custom  
> applications and that will read and write file geodatabase datasets.  
> This will be released after ArcGIS 9.3.
> 	• Geodatabase GML. ESRI will release a full geodatabase GML schema  
> with ArcGIS 9.3. This profile will be based on the OGC  
> specifications and built on the simple feature GML specification  
> adopted by OGC this past year.
>

> I'd kind of hope that this is just a bunch of c libraries that we  
> can compile on anything we want,
> but ultimately we'll just have to wait and see...
>

I highly doubt that.  ESRI publishes binary software, not source.  In  
the same FAQ, the question about open source participation even says:

"
Traditionally, ESRI has been an open systems, closed source software  
vendor. ... ESRI continues to maintain an open system strategy.
"

And, unfortunately, the Geodatabase FAQ basically says outright that  
ESRI isn't going to publish the specs of the geodatabase format.   
We're at their mercy.  Maybe we'll see binaries for the commercialized  
linux systems ESRI supports.

-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
http://www.kyngchaos.com/

"Mon Dieu! but they are all alike.  Cheating, murdering, lying,  
fighting, and all for things that the beasts of the jungle would not  
deign to possess - money to purchase the effeminate pleasures of  
weaklings.  And yet withal bound down by silly customs that make them  
slaves to their unhappy lot while firm in the belief that they be the  
lords of creation enjoying the only real pleasures of existence....

- the wisdom of Tarzan