[postgis-users] WKB format

[Dave Blasby]

> Perhaps Dave/Chris could answer: why are we using a special type (wkb)
> for the wkb results instead of just a bytea?

The main reason is so the "WKB" object is typed.  Postgresql functions
can be written that accept the WKB type in (like a future
GeometryFromWKB function).  For applications, they can tell the
difference between a WKT column (or result) and a non-WKB bytea.  ByteA
are hard to work with.

I also believe the bytea's datatype defaults to binary-coded-strings -
that a 8* overhead.

If people really want, I can give you a WKB-to-byteA conversion
function.

dave