[Qgis-user] Question on default file formats

[Árni Geirsson]

Hi Andreas and Bernd
Thank you for taking this further. I appreciate Andreas' challenge to start
an initiative. I have enjoyed using QGIS but only contributed some money
and would enjoy having a more active role. I tend to agree with Bernd,
though, that it might not be a good idea to go ahead with a somewhat
strategic development like this in such a haphazard way. It seems to me
that the problem is not the lack of initiative or funding but the
determination on where to go with file format options and priorities - but
I am just a distant observer from the sidelines and do not know much about
what has been discussed. I assume that this would require systematic
evaluation of the available options and preferably a consensus in the user
and developer communities. I have seen mixed opinion stated on whether the
geopackage is a viable successor to the shapefile. I don't know myself, I
don't think I know enough myself to be able to form an opinion. There may
be other candidates.

Arni


Árni Geirsson
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On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 4:20 PM, Árni Geirsson <arni at alta.is> wrote:

> Thank you Alex - that answers my question completely.
>
> Arni
>
>
> Árni Geirsson
> *Alta ehf* // +354 582 5000 // +354 897 9549
> www.alta.is  // Alta á Twitter <http://twitter.com/alta_ehf> // Alta á
> Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alta/161795813838691?v=wall>
>
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 4:15 PM, Alex Mandel <tech_dev at wildintellect.com>
> wrote:
>
>> It's more elaborate than that. Not all applications in the toolbox can
>> read Spatialite yet either (e.g. SAGA). So the intermediate is something
>> all the tools can use. At some point the toolbox might get developed to
>> were any ogr data source can be used for the intermediates, but it isn't
>> there yet. I ran into this issue with Postgis a couple of years ago, and
>> the whole point of using Postgis was to escape the limitations of the
>> shapefile (particularly file size).
>>
>> In some ways if you use Spatialite or Postgis you don't actually need a
>> lot of the basic tools as those can all be done with SQL via the DB
>> Manager or QSpatialite.
>>
>> As for Geopackage, keep in mind it's an exchange format. Even with 2.8
>> I've had no issues reading GPKG files in, though I've been creating them
>> with ogr2ogr on the command line to convert whole databases at a time
>> between Spatialite and other formats.
>>
>> Shapefile still remains the lowest common denominator. I agree other
>> formats should be suggested first by the save dialog since shp can cause
>> data loss (date/time, field names, etc).
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Alex
>>
>>
>> On 07/28/2015 09:04 AM, Árni Geirsson wrote:
>> > Thanks for the answer Jim. I understand that the shapefiles are lingua
>> > franca but to me that would imply that they should be used when exchange
>> > with other applications is needed - which is not always. But I had not
>> > realized that I might be constraining the set of available tools if I
>> use
>> > SpatiaLite. Does this mean that if I have my date in SpatiaLite, many of
>> > the tools in the Processing toolbox would not be available to me?
>> >
>> > Arni
>> >
>> >
>> > Árni Geirsson
>> > *Alta ehf* // +354 582 5000 // +354 897 9549
>> > www.alta.is  // Alta á Twitter <http://twitter.com/alta_ehf> // Alta á
>> > Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alta/161795813838691?v=wall>
>> >
>> > On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 3:54 PM, James Keener <jim at jimkeener.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >> 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
>> >>>
>> >>> ------------------------------
>> >>>
>> >>> Qgis-user mailing list
>> >>> Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
>> >>> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >> --
>> >> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>>
>
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