[Gvsig_english] Status

[Benjamin Ducke]

> 
> In my list, the support of file geodatabase will be a big issue. I  
> know, it's esri the problem.  At the esri conference they said that  
> it's for the 9,4 prevue to be release at spring for the api.  Just  
> remember that shapefile are outdated and, for small users, like us,  
> postgis is not the solution.  All the vector and bitmaps file are in 
> file geodatabase.  We will need to access them.

Support for ESRI's new Geodatabase format is probably never going
to happen in open source GIS. And if it does, then in the form
of some binary-only drivers that will run on nothing except Windows.
It's more likely that this will turn into the next nightmare for 
GIS interoperability, right after MXD.

These are intentional vendor lock-in strategies and they produce
a lot of revenue for the software companies that utilize them.

In any case, from a functional point of view there is no need
to waste resources on it as SpatiaLite does the same things and
is completely open source.

There is increasing work on a Java interface:

http://groups.google.com/group/spatialite-users/browse_thread/thread/cb3fb31e8e7c6548

Even without SpatiaLite, SQLite file databases can be used
in various clever and simple ways to store geodata. The next version
1.7 of GDAL will have a very flexible driver for this:

http://www.gdal.org/ogr/drv_sqlite.html

The most simple storage model supported by this driver could
probably already be implemented in gvSIG, based on the work
done for PostGIS. I believe that an SQLite geodatabase would
make a perfect "native" vector data storage format for
gvSIG, avoiding all the stupid limitations of shapefiles
and maintaining full compatibility with all other GIS that
really matter (aka open source GIS).

Cheers,

Ben


> 
> Hoping to see a mac version to test... soon.
> 
> Marcel
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