[postgis-users] WWCDD - PostGIS, ESRI's Spatial Data Type for Oracle, and Data Independence

[dnrg]

First, thanks to Paul, Doug, and others for responding
to my recent questions.

Here's another:

WWCDD? What Would Chris Date Do (and Hugh and Fabian)
regarding spatial SQL extensions / geoprocessing APIs?

Chris Date has always been keen on Data Independence
and "principles, not products." Seems using anything
but ANSI SQL allows one's data to be "owned" by the
product of a particular vendor.

The introduction of spatial SQL operators, one
imagines, might put Chris Dates knickers in even more
of a twist. Full disclosure: although I don't always
understand what he's saying, I take what Chris Date
has to say seriously). 

When using PostGIS, or ESRI's new Spatial Data Type
for Oracle, or Oracle Spatial, is one getting closer
to or further from Data / Application Independence?

I realize CD rejects most (all?) RDBMS products on the
market, and the SQL language itself, as
quasi-relational and riddled with error. Yes, we know
they deviate from the RM.

Still, given the databases presently on the market
today and the existence of ANSI SQL standards, how do
these three spatial data types help or hinder
migrating data and applications from one spatial
database platform to another? 

My chief complaint about ArcSDE itself, independent of
anything else, is that the geodatabase model is not a
published standard. So ArcSDE seems to own the data in
the worst possible sense. Worst because, for those
wanting to limit feature use to 

Am I mistaken, or is ArcSDE, as wonderful as it
otherwise is (I use it and like it) locking customers
and their data in? Seems like ESRI's Spatial Data Type
for Oracle is a way for non-GIS clients to get to the
data, allowing greater leverage of that data
enterprise-wide; but it seems like migrating the data
would be tough (short of exporting to shapefile and
starting all over).

I'm sure I'm getting my concepts scrambled here.

So, what *would* Chris Date say about spatial database
technology? (aside from saying object-relational
databases are still "relational").

Spatially,

    Dana





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