Hi Rick, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Peter Yuill wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I responded to a recent post on the derby-user list on this topic. I am > > working on a project to add spatial functionality to Derby through user > > created tables and procedures. I am interested in taking the next step > > and looking at incorporating spatial functionality in Derby. > > > > The biggest issue I see is one of licensing. The concept of 'spatial > > datatypes' might seem simple enough, but there is no real point without > > spatial functions to go with them. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) > > http://www.opengeospatial.org published a standard set of these, and > > there are a handful of high grade open source implementations. There is > > a huge amount of work in these implementations, and they rely on very > > specialized expertise. In the Java world there is just one that has > > stood the test of time, the JTS Topology Suite > > http://sourceforge.net/projects/jts-topo-suite/ . However JTS is LGPL, > > and the prospect of re-engineering the functionality just to get an > > Apache 2.0 license is mind boggling. Even worse, two of the OGC spatial > > filters (Distance Within and Beyond) require Coordinate Reference System > > (CRS) transformation if the database features are stored in a geographic > > CRS. The obvious choice for that functionality is Geotools > > http://geotools.codehaus.org/ , again LGPL. The Apache web site > > indicates there are unresolved questions about the compatibility of > > Apache 2.0 and GPL. Does anyone have more information on the status of > > LGPL? > > > Hi Peter, > > Thanks for working on this valuable contribution. We can ask the > legal-discuss list for advice about the licensing issues. Do you know > which version of the LGPL is used by the geospatial work? A quick glance > at the Geo Tools website indicated LGPL without specifying which > version. There are apparently two versions (2.1 and 3) according to the > Free Software Foundation: > http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/index_html#LGPL
Both Geotools and JTS use LGPL 2.1 > Thanks, > -Rick > > One alternative is to take the route that MySQL went. Leave out all the > > secondary filtering and just support Minimum Bounding Rectangle (MBR) > > queries. However the same question keeps surfacing on the MySQL spatial > > list with monotonous regularity: when will MySQL get 'real' spatial > > functionality. Personally I think a user-space solution is preferable to > > a half-way solution like MySQL. > > > > Regards, > > Peter > > >
