Puneet wrote: "Shall we focus on the technical limitations of Shapefiles in order to keep moving forward?"
I was going to add a couple of limitations in addition to the limitations of attribute data brought on by use of a DBF file as a storage container: [1] No way to store simple topology. [2] No way to store features with different schema and/or different geometry representations in the same file. [3] No way to store labeling or annotation. I'm not sure if you would want to do all of this with a new file format, but I know its limitations of the Shapefile format that I have run into in the past. Landon P.S. - This is probably a crazy idea, but has anyone ever considered talking to ESRI about cooperating on an update Shapefile spec? -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of P Kishor Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 9:06 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: OSGeo Discussions Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: idea for an OSGeo project -- a new,open data format On 11/14/07, David William Bitner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > I never (I think I never did) argued that Shapefile is not open. I > > argued that it is not Free. I could be wrong. > > > > > > > > Here's the open published specification: > http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf yes, I am aware of this, and have used it on and off over the past decade. > > Do what you will with it. I don't know in this case what you imply by Free. > Might ESRI make changes in the future that they don't publish? Maybe, but > at this version of shapefiles -- that are pervasive throughout the industry, > I would doubt they would forgo backwards compatibility and this version of > the specification is out there and free and open as far as I can tell. > ok, so there may or may not be an issue. I did bring it up, and so I risk the discussion focusing on this aspect too much. Let's forget about this aspect for now. Shall we focus on the technical limitations of Shapefiles in order to keep moving forward? Many thanks, Puneet. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss Warning: Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately. _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
