On 2012-09-27 13:36+0200 Arjen Markus wrote: > On 2012-09-27 13:35, Andrew Ross wrote: >> >> Of course we could keep the current code as well and only enable >> shapefile support if the library is present. Shapefile support would >> be convenient for users. >> > > Actually, that is what I had in mind.
I think that this (only enable support if the dependent library is present) is a good general approach. So we could start with using shapelib (if present) to interpret shapefile data. But in the long term I don't think we should stop there. I have mentioned the MIT-licensed OGR and GDAL possibilities before, but let me do it again since they are so relevant to this discussion and they are both more comprehensive now (more formats supported) than when I mentioned them before. The OGR library (http://www.gdal.org/ogr/index.html) translates between many vector formats for maps (see http://www.gdal.org/ogr/ogr_formats.html for the full list) including ESRI Shapefile format. The GDAL library (http://www.gdal.org/) similarly translates between many raster formats for maps (see http://www.gdal.org/formats_list.html for the full list). I think our long-term goal should be to interface our core library to both the OGR and GDAL libraries (again, only if those libraries are present). This would give PLplot users the powerful capability of being able to translate most available map formats into either a standard internal vector form (probably shapefile according to this current thread) or standard internal raster form (probably PNM following what we do with the "Lena" image) and modify that internal form with extra decorations and transformations as in example 19. Alan __________________________ Alan W. Irwin Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca). Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net). __________________________ Linux-powered Science __________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;258768047;13503038;j? http://info.appdynamics.com/FreeJavaPerformanceDownload.html _______________________________________________ Plplot-devel mailing list Plplot-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/plplot-devel
