Niklaus,
I have found, over the years, that the Oracle Spatial team is less willing to
listen to small users than its own internal business units or large corporate
customers.
For example, the performance of the Oracle Spatial geoprocessing functions has
been poor for years (and of course I have said so both publicly and privately
to members of the development team) but nothing gets done. Now that is not the
case for PostGIS though I suspect Paul would have liked the new STRTree based
ST_Union aggregate operator had come out years ago (I would kill for that speed
in the relevant Oracle aggregate operators eg SDO_AGGR_UNION). From my
perspective this new function responds directly to user needs and helps users,
consultants and developers by giving them the in-database tools they can choose
to use (or not) to implement solutions.
This sort of responsiveness is part and parcel of the open source model.
regards
Simon
On Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:48:10 +1100, <[email protected]> wrote:
Simon Great, just a complementing comment.What I mean is that those examples
shows in a good way that the transparancy open source gives, means a lot in
itself.
It gives the possibility of new users to contribute with ideas from looking at
the code and it makes it easier for postgresql-postgis to get a good
interaction. As I imagine the road from a problem in postgis to a solution i
postgresql would have been quite long and windling in a closed source
environment where Paul and Tom would have to hide their codes from each other,
only discussing the API:s. In that case Oracle would have a great point in
controling the whole chain. But that benefit is not that clear when comparing
to an open source system chain. I guess this is all worn out arguments in the
open source world, but important to remember I think. The open source in it
self gives a strength to the system and contributes to a more flexible and
exciting development (development in a wider perspective). /Nicklas
2009-10-13 Simon Greener wrote:
Niklaus,
Thanks for your observations and comments.
There are a few things in your email but the main thing I take home, as I have
done via my interaction with this list, is that the developers of the product
(PostGIS) are more involved in the user community than the Oracle equivalents
specifically in being able to do something - directly - about the problems
presented (not that PostGIS is not an official part of PostgreSQL as against
Oracle). It is not that I say the Oracle team are not involved in their own
forum, it is just that, I think, there is a tangible difference between what
they can or are willing to do than their open source competitors.
I will say so in a slide or two but it will be a minor aspect of my talk.
Again, thanks very much for taking the time ot comment.
regards
Simon
On Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:52:23 +1100,wrote:
Hallo I think it couldn't be held high enough in this comparasion that postgis
is an open source project (and I guess that's what they want to hear at FOSS4G
:-) ). two examples The 13 of aug Jose Carlos asked a question about strange
performance when using indexes in a particular
situation.http://postgis.refractions.net/pipermail/postgis-users/2009-August/024238.html
After that we can all follow the discussions on the users and development
lists and I realise myself that this is a problem I have had too without seeing
it. Paul Ramsey and Tom Lane finds how to solve the problem in postgresql and
2009-09-09 the solution is released in postgresql 8.4.1. I think that is very
impressive. A problem occurs in postgis and less than a month later the
solution is released in postgresql. Even if the release of 8.4.1 wouldn't have
been that close, Tom committed the solution about one week Ithink after Jose
Carlos first message. So from that day it was possible for anyone to use it.
I!
guess this was a special case, but worth mentioning. the second example is
about my own experiance with postgis.In january I asked about the same question
on this list as Juergen Lorenz Simon did yesterday. the post from
january:http://postgis.refractions.net/pipermail/postgis-users/2009-February/022699.html
I had about the same answer of solution then as Regina now suggests for
postgis
1.4http://postgis.refractions.net/pipermail/postgis-users/2009-October/024838.html
Since this is an open source project I downloaded the source and gave it a
try. With some quite small modifications I could get the functionality I
requested with great help and peptalk from the community (read Regina). And as
the GPL license request I am happy to deliver it back as a suggestion for the
future release.It was no big or advanced modification but it meant a lot to me,
both for functionality and for thesatisfaction of having managed it.
ThanksNicklas
2009-10-13 Simon Greener wrote:
Folks,
I am giving a talk at FOSS4G in Sydney next week. That talk's title and
abstract are:
==================================================================
Title: PostGIS and Oracle Spatial
Abstract:
Oracle Spatial and PostGIS are two of the most mature implementations of a
spatial type system for their relevant host databases.
With Postgres increasing in strength, and offshoot EnterpriseDB aiming to
convert businesses running Oracle to EnterpriseDB/Postgres, the question of the
relative merits of each of the spatial implementations arises.
This talk will attempt to provide the audience with an understanding of the
relative strengths and weaknesses of the two implementations so that they can
feel they have some useful information which might aid decision making for new
installations or conversions.
==================================================================
While I already have quite a bit of material I thought I would ask the PostGIS
community for suggestions as to what they would like covered if they were
attending FOSS4G. Nothing worse than attending a presentation and, at the end,
saying to youself that it was not what you expected and that nothing much was
of use.
So, what sorts of things do you think should be covered?
regards
SImon
--
SpatialDB Advice and Design, Solutions Architecture and Programming,
Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Associate; Oracle Database 10g SQL
Certified Professional
Oracle Spatial, SQL Server, PostGIS, MySQL, ArcSDE, Manifold GIS, FME, Radius
Topology and Studio Specialist.
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_______________________________________________
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--
SpatialDB Advice and Design, Solutions Architecture and Programming,
Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Associate; Oracle Database 10g SQL
Certified Professional
Oracle Spatial, SQL Server, PostGIS, MySQL, ArcSDE, Manifold GIS, FME, Radius
Topology and Studio Specialist.
39 Cliff View Drive, Allens Rivulet, 7150, Tasmania, Australia.
Website: www.spatialdbadvisor.com
Email: [email protected]
Voice: +61 362 396397
Mobile: +61 418 396391
Skype: sggreener
Longitude: 147.20515 (147° 12' 18" E)
Latitude: -43.01530 (43° 00' 55" S)
GeoHash: r22em9r98wg
NAC:W80CK 7SWP3
_______________________________________________
postgis-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://postgis.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/postgis-users
--
SpatialDB Advice and Design, Solutions Architecture and Programming,
Oracle Database 10g Administrator Certified Associate; Oracle Database 10g SQL
Certified Professional
Oracle Spatial, SQL Server, PostGIS, MySQL, ArcSDE, Manifold GIS, FME, Radius
Topology and Studio Specialist.
39 Cliff View Drive, Allens Rivulet, 7150, Tasmania, Australia.
Website: www.spatialdbadvisor.com
Email: [email protected]
Voice: +61 362 396397
Mobile: +61 418 396391
Skype: sggreener
Longitude: 147.20515 (147° 12' 18" E)
Latitude: -43.01530 (43° 00' 55" S)
GeoHash: r22em9r98wg
NAC:W80CK 7SWP3
_______________________________________________
postgis-users mailing list
[email protected]
http://postgis.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/postgis-users
