1) In the City of Uster (Kanton Zurich, Switzerland) we use
PostgreSQL/Postgis as a central (geo)-data-warehouse. We import survey
data, data on energy supply (electricity, water, gaz) and waste-water
management and all additional geodata the city manages (urban planning,
nature, agriculture, traffic, street management, etc.)
We also use Postgis for data analysis and report generation. We use it
in conjunction with QuantumGIS, GRASS and Autodesk software. Sometimes
we do the analysis directly with SQL and export the data to SVG/HTML/PDF.
2) It is quite feature complete and offers more (geo)-functionality than
most commercial databases. PostgreSQL offers advanced database
technology (like Oracle) at a much lower price. It is also easy to
extend by ourselves and it is easy to find developers to extend it
feature-wise if it is too complex for us to implement it by ourself.
3) It is always good to have a book for learning new technology. For the
more advanced users it would be good to have some hints on improving
performance (eg tweaking postgresql.conf settings), indexes, query
optimization, etc. For all users it would be great to have spatial
queries to build upon. It would be great if the queries could be
visualized somehow with graphics or demo-data supplied to play with.
It would also be great to have chapters on more advanced topics like
linear referencing, routing with PostGIS and the intersectionPatternMatrix.
A text on interpreting the output of the "Explain" command would also be
great in order to allow query optimization.
Speaking for Switzerland I can say that there is a lot of interest in
PostgreSQL/Postgis because it is easier to maintain than oracle at lower
prices. The one missing bit for a break-trough and wide use in
Switzerland is proper curve-support for circular-arcs - not only for
data-storage but also for all the algorithms (data analysis) and related
tools (QGIS, GRASS, etc.). This is implemented in OracleSpatial and
still missing in PostgreSQL - the one major reason for many in
Switzerland to stay with OracleSpatial.
Andreas
Paragon Corporation wrote:
Leo and I have a good portion of a PostGIS book written. Ideally we would
like to get a publisher to publish it, but seem to be running into the same
obstacles. No publisher seems to think people use PostGIS to warrant enough
demand for a book dedicated to it.
So to make a decent case for a book, can each of you in your own words
describe
1) How you use PostGIS?
2) What you find useful about it over anything else?
3) Why you think there should be any book written focused on its use and of
course if such a thing were to exist, would you buy it?
Of course I'll also need some official download stats etc. which hopefully
the Refractions group can help out with. I think Mark Cave-Ayland had
posted some stats a while back, but can't find them.
Thanks,
Regina
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--
--
Andreas Neumann
Böschacherstrasse 6
CH-8624 Grüt (Gossau ZH)
Switzerland
Phone: ++41-44-2736668
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.carto.net/neumann/
SVG Examples: http://www.carto.net/papers/svg/samples/
SVG.Open: http://www.svgopen.org/
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