[postgis-devel] postgis_letters in project tree?

[Bruce Rindahl]

A little history might help.
In the early 2000's before Google Maps, I built a mapping interface for the
State of Colorado called AquaMap.  It had WMS backgrounds and SVG for all
the vector elements and was based on the work done by Andreas Nueman and
others.  The client wanted to put a legal definition of a parcel into a
spreadsheet, upload it to a web map in SVG, and then allow the user to
manipulate the coordinates (snapping, rotation, etc.) via the browser over
existing parcels and the WMS background.  Then, and most importantly, they
wanted to save the altered SVG shape into the spatial database (PostGIS).
I wrote the javascript functions to convert SVG into a WKT format that was
then uploaded to the database.  It worked very well for years but the slow
adoption of SVG (Microsoft) meant the interface was eventually replaced by
other technologies.

My code lay dormant until Regina wanted to do letters :
https://www.postgresonline.com/journal/archives/293-Saying-Happy-Valentine-in-PostGIS.html
and
https://www.postgresonline.com/journal/archives/302-Word-Play-with-Spatial-SQL.html

I tweaked my code enough to give her the SQL commands to store the glyphs
in PostGIS.  Since then based on some requests from others I converted the
javascript to python.

Maybe the discussion should be about implementing a ST_GeomFomSVG function
instead

On Thu, Jan 27, 2022 at 5:09 AM Greg Troxel <gdt at lexort.com> wrote:

>
> Sandro Santilli <strk at kbt.io> writes:
>
> > On Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 04:22:40PM -0500, Regina Obe wrote:
> >> Might be too big to throw into main (data wise), but as included as a
> >> separate extension in repo would be nice.
> >
> > What advantage would this be compared to separate extension in
> > separate repository as it is now ? Just wondering...
>
> I had no idea postgis_letters existed, so a few questions/comments:
>
>   There is talk of big, but how much are we talking about?  Currently on
>   my system package sizes are:
>     postgis: 29 MB
>     server:  20 MB
>     client:  16 MB
>   So if we're talking 500 kB, it's not a big deal, but doubling the
>   package size for something only makes senes if most users want it.  I
>   can't see that more than a few  would want it.
>
>   Different packaging systems have different approaches to splitting
>   packages that are from a single upstream release.  In general, if
>   things are supposed to be packaged separately, it's nicer/cleaner to
>   have them separate upstream.
>
>   I don't understand what postgis_letters is for, and why people would
>   want it.  Fonts don't really exist in space like most objects people
>   represent in postgis.  I suppose a few people might do this to be able
>   to shift/scale to coordinates to stake out a garden that makes a word
>   when viewed from the air.  So what's it for?  Is it just test code?  A
>   neat hack for fun?   Somehow helpful for map rendering?  The repo
>   doesn't explain; the linked example supports "this is test data for a
>   tutorial/exploration of what the functions do'.
>
>   It seems that the extension should come with code to process fonts in
>   standard representations, rather than preprocessed fonts.  It could
>   then just use fonts already on the system, and it would be both more
>   powerful and smaller.
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