On Sep 23, 2008, at 12:51 AM, Roppola, Antti - BRS wrote:
ESRI will provide full and open access to the geodatabase using the
following methods:
• A free and open API to the file geodatabase. * The file
geodatabase was introduced at ArcGIS 9.2. While ESRI would ideally
like to open the file geodatabase format in a manner similar to what
we did for shapefiles when we released ArcView 2, geodatabases are
complex and can be easily corrupted outside the ArcGIS
environment. Instead, we plan to engineer a high performing and
well documented API that developers can freely embed in custom
applications and that will read and write file geodatabase datasets.
This will be released after ArcGIS 9.3.
• Geodatabase GML. ESRI will release a full geodatabase GML schema
with ArcGIS 9.3. This profile will be based on the OGC
specifications and built on the simple feature GML specification
adopted by OGC this past year.
I'd kind of hope that this is just a bunch of c libraries that we
can compile on anything we want,
but ultimately we'll just have to wait and see...
I highly doubt that. ESRI publishes binary software, not source. In
the same FAQ, the question about open source participation even says:
"
Traditionally, ESRI has been an open systems, closed source software
vendor. ... ESRI continues to maintain an open system strategy.
"
And, unfortunately, the Geodatabase FAQ basically says outright that
ESRI isn't going to publish the specs of the geodatabase format.
We're at their mercy. Maybe we'll see binaries for the commercialized
linux systems ESRI supports.
-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
http://www.kyngchaos.com/
"Mon Dieu! but they are all alike. Cheating, murdering, lying,
fighting, and all for things that the beasts of the jungle would not
deign to possess - money to purchase the effeminate pleasures of
weaklings. And yet withal bound down by silly customs that make them
slaves to their unhappy lot while firm in the belief that they be the
lords of creation enjoying the only real pleasures of existence....
- the wisdom of Tarzan
_______________________________________________
mapserver-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users
