[postgis] JTS vs Java2D

[mbdavis]

Good analysis, Adrian.

As you say, the ideal situation is to have spatial functionality available
both in PostGIS itself, and as a standalone library usable for many data
sources.  It's definitely key to have at least the spatial relationship
functionality in the database itself, both for efficiency reasons (reducing
the size of result sets) and usability reasons (it's easier to enter SQL
statements than fire up a compiler).  The spatial analysis functions might
be useful as well, to allow queries like "sum the areas of features which
intersect with a query feature"

The idea of an abstracted client-side API is intriguing; it could contain
some sort of notion of "spatial data source driver" which would allow it to
utilize data from many sources.  There are already several APIs similar to
this - one example is the CGDI initiative out of CTI in Quebec.  The
venerable Grass product is another example of a slightly different flavour.
Hopefully the world is rallying around the OCG standards, and there will be
some consolidation in the various APIs.

It would also be useful to have the library available in a couple of
different platforms, such as Java and C/C++.   Of course, C is a pretty
generic platform which could be called from Java as well, but there are some
good reasons why we targeted Java as the platform for JTS.  The development
cycle is shorter using Java, the code is much easier to understand, and
there is a well-defined library format (unlike C/C++, which differs between
platforms)  Also, nowadays it seems that a Java library might be useful to
more people than a C++ library.  Now that the algorithms have been developed
and refined, it should be straightforward to port them to C++.

Martin Davis, Senior Technical Specialist
Vivid Solutions Inc.
Suite #1A-2328 Government Street   Victoria, B.C.   V8T 5G5
Phone: (250) 385 6040    Fax: (250) 385 6046
EMail: mbdavis at vividsolutions.com  Web: www.vividsolutions.com


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Small business owners...
Tell us what you think!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/vO1FAB/txzCAA/ySSFAA/PhFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
postgis-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/