[postgis-users] WKB data in files

[Paul Ramsey]

I think you have hit the nail on the head. WKB is not really designed as 
  a file format, but as a transport format. Generally you would store 
shapes on disk as a GeometryCollection of some sort. But as with shape, 
you would need somewhere to store your attributes (an assocated file, 
hooray) and probably an index file to speed up access speed (another 
associated file, hooray).  And by then, you have reinvented the shape file.

Why is the shape file not suitable to you for on disk storage? There are 
numerous open source readers and writers in all sorts of languages. The 
shape file format is often abused, but the proliferation of standard 
read/write libraries has basically plastered over any lingering 
interoperability problems with the format.

Paul

Mateusz Łoskot wrote:

> In my opinion, it should be, but it could be hard to implement it
> because of some information omitted in WKB format i.e. header for file
> with information about number of geometry objects, etc. (as in Shape).
> If it is possible to use WKB in files, it could be useful to 
> create some WKB dumping tool. What do you think ?

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      | Paul Ramsey
      | Refractions Research
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