[Qgis-user] Re: Re: QGIS 1.5 Update for ECW/SID support crashes

[Alex Mandel]

On 10/18/2010 06:56 AM, Doug Lane wrote:
> 
> Fellow users, I am stuck using MrSid from both my local government and my state.  I am slightly unclear how much that is affected with ECW, but I am under the impression that they are tied together.  So If We migrate to a new version of GDAL that does not support this, I will be relegated to an older version of QGIS, and will have a harder time trying to spread the word, since many people who are interested are also learning the leading commercial stuff and would want some of your newest additions to code, and would not be as inclined to join lists and do much research to see how to support MrSid (or if it has been reinstated to a dependancy and thus supported by default).
> 
> just my 2 cents.
> 
> doug
> 
> Thank you all for your hard work on code, manuals, and spreading to word.  This is truly a great program and seems to be gaining momentum, that I don't think anyone would want to see be lost. 
>  		 	   		  
> 
> 

I just wanted to clarify that MrSid and ECW are only related
circumstantially. Basically both of them require the download and
agreement to an SDK, MrSID from LizardTech and ECW from ERDAS. Hence the
install method for both is similar.

However it is quite possible to have one working and not the other.
Note: LizardTech has been quite helpful in making sure GDAL can work
with their format, several people from the company are quite active in
OSGeo. I can not speak of ERDAS other that to say I'm am unaware of
their involvement.

Since these 2 formats are quite popular I would expect the GDAL
community to continue to make them work as possible. Just keep in mind
there are lag times between the release of a new GDAL, or SDK and when
they will work together (Sometimes on the order of months). So check
before any upgrade.

Thanks,
Alex