[postgis-devel] I want boxes

[Sandro Santilli]

On Wed, Nov 09, 2011 at 10:04:09AM -0800, Paul Ramsey wrote:
> Any suggestions on the WKT form for a box?
> 
> EXTENT(minx, miny, max, maxy) ?
> EXTENT(minx, maxx, miny, maxy) ?
> 
> the second form is what I actually store in serialization because
> keeping the dimensions together makes it easier to have more/less
> dimensions. However, I think the first form is better from a usage
> pint of view... probably would be better to follow some WKT strictures
> and embed POINT in the form like this
> 
> EXTENT(minx miny, maxx maxy)
> 
> And then the extended forms become
> 
> EXTENT Z (minx miny minz, maxx maxy maxz)
> EXTENT M (minx miny minm, maxx maxy maxm)
> EXTENT ZM (minx miny minz minm, maxx maxy maxz maxm)
> 
> Any thoughts on the type token? I feel a little "box overload" so am
> suggesting "extent". But it could be box.
> 
> Let me know, this is supposed to be my item before freeze...

I like the final ones, where you have all dimensions togheter.
Don't forget SRID=xxx; prefix.

Are we talking about another type or a GEOMETRY extension ?
I'm still not sure which one I'd want.

Having a type might help doing tricks with implicit casts for
all operations that only deal with "extents", like && and &&&,
so you don't have to use special code for GEOMETRY, GEOGRAPHY,
RASTER, TOPOGEOMETRY but only define implicit casts to EXTENT.

--strk;

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