[Qgis-user] Question on default file formats

[James Keener]

More tools support it. Spatialite wasn't supported in esri until very recently and other tools may not support anything but shape files. It's become a lingual franca, and like English: it's terrible, but works well enough.

Jim

On July 28, 2015 11:38:24 AM AST, "Árni Geirsson" <arni at alta.is> wrote:
>Hello
>I find it interesting that the ancient shapefile format is (or at least
>appears to be) the default file format for QGIS when SpatiaLite seems
>to be
>a much more capable format. I have been using mostly shapefiles and
>when
>using for example the tools under the vector menu, intermediate results
>are
>saved as shapefiles, leading to a big pile of files after a short
>session
>of vector processing. Now, I have discovered that by using the
>processing
>tools the intermediates can be temporary files (still shapefiles, just
>hidden away in a temporary folder). After saving a temporary file as a
>SpatiaLite file, I can enter field names longer than 10 characters but
>I
>can not add a text field that accommodates more than 255 characters.
>So my question is: Why is the shapefile format the default?
>
>I have also noticed that with 2.10 I can save in Geopackage format.
>Does
>that mean that support for this format has improved?
>
>Any insights are highly appreciated.
>
>Arni Geirsson
>
>
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