Simone answered a number of my questions about compression formats.
I'm forwarding to the geotools list in case there are others interested 
in following Simon's progress.

[7:00:16 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Hello Simone
[7:04:29 AM] simboss18830 says: Ciao Cameron
[7:04:46 AM] simboss18830 says: I didn't notice you were online, sorry!
[7:05:21 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Got a minute to talk about compression?
[7:05:29 AM] simboss18830 says: sure
[7:06:17 AM] Cameron Shorter says: I want to get my head around the 
level of effort required to get compression into UDig.
[7:06:44 AM] Cameron Shorter says: And the level of quality that it is 
currently at.
[7:08:19 AM] simboss18830 says: I have a couple of questions for you in 
order to get a more clear idea of what you really need
[7:08:24 AM] Cameron Shorter says: I assume you plan to move your code 
into the Geotools baseline sometime? When are you planning to do that?
[7:08:27 AM] Cameron Shorter says: yes?
[7:08:49 AM] simboss18830 says: 1>do you need only reading capabilities 
at first
[7:08:57 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Yes
[7:09:44 AM] simboss18830 says: 2>do you havein mind about a specific 
format/library, like ECW or MRSID or KAKADU or maybe something else?
[7:09:59 AM] simboss18830 says: (remove *about* :) )
[7:10:20 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ECW or JP2000 were mentioned by the 
customer.
[7:10:38 AM] Cameron Shorter says: But if another format is easier, we 
could consider that.
[7:10:55 AM] simboss18830 says: ECW sdk
[7:11:04 AM] simboss18830 says: allows to access ECW and JP2 format
[7:11:21 AM] simboss18830 says: MRSID sdk allows to access MrSID and JP2
[7:11:40 AM] simboss18830 says: kakadu allows to access only JP2 WITHOUT 
any geoinfo
[7:11:56 AM] simboss18830 says: also the cost might be a factor to consider
[7:12:10 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Cost of development?
[7:12:19 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Or license?
[7:12:20 AM] simboss18830 says: cost of the license for the sdk
[7:12:31 AM] simboss18830 says: kakadu for instance can be quite expensive
[7:12:36 AM] simboss18830 says: for a big organizzation
[7:12:59 AM] simboss18830 says: if you want tomorrow I can do a little 
survey
[7:13:08 AM] simboss18830 says: costs/capabilities
[7:13:15 AM] simboss18830 says: for the various libs
[7:13:25 AM] simboss18830 says: and put it on the geotools wiki
[7:13:27 AM] Cameron Shorter says: We have time. It is not needed until 
OWS5.2 which is in a month or 2.
[7:13:38 AM] Cameron Shorter says: That would be great.
[7:14:15 AM] Cameron Shorter says: As you might have guessed, I know 
very little about compression formats at the moment.
[7:14:43 AM] Cameron Shorter says: I'm guessing that we will be wanting 
ECW/JP2000 SDK.
[7:14:48 AM] simboss18830 says: well basically all of them work in a 
pretty similar way
[7:14:53 AM] simboss18830 says: using wavelet compression
[7:15:00 AM] simboss18830 says: the sdk itself usuallly makes the difference
[7:15:10 AM] simboss18830 says: I think ecw is a good balance
[7:15:28 AM] simboss18830 says: I have to check but I think that for reading
[7:15:31 AM] simboss18830 says: ECW is free
[7:15:35 AM] simboss18830 says: and for compressing
[7:15:45 AM] simboss18830 says: is free for images under 500 mb
[7:15:56 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ECW is produced by ERMapper isn't it?
[7:16:00 AM] simboss18830 says: yeah
[7:16:08 AM] simboss18830 says: they are australian btw
[7:16:17 AM] simboss18830 says: but they have been bought by Leica recently
[7:16:17 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ERMapper is an Australian company - 
which is of benefit to us.
[7:16:28 AM] simboss18830 says: yeah :)
[7:16:48 AM] simboss18830 says: now the second part of quick poll :)
[7:16:58 AM] Cameron Shorter says: (We will be funded by Australian 
Research agenency CRC-SI which favours sponsoring Australian industry)
[7:17:20 AM] simboss18830 says: The easiest, fastest way to use ECW is 
by leveraging on GDAL SWIG bindings
[7:17:49 AM] simboss18830 says: but this introduces an additional 
indirection level between us and the ECW sdk
[7:17:54 AM] simboss18830 says: hiding some capabilities
[7:18:35 AM] simboss18830 says: hence you might loose some of the power 
of the underlying SDK
[7:18:50 AM] simboss18830 says: and also
[7:18:58 AM] simboss18830 says: you alwayd depend on gdal
[7:19:08 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ok
[7:19:09 AM] simboss18830 says: which addsa more burden on the maintainer
[7:19:48 AM] Cameron Shorter says: When bunding, how many packages would 
a user need to install and what licenses are involved?
[7:20:04 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Is there a proprietary license 
inserted into one of the libraries?
[7:20:59 AM] simboss18830 says: mmmmhh, I am not sure, I would have to check
[7:21:02 AM] simboss18830 says: but I think
[7:21:08 AM] simboss18830 says: that you could freely redistribuite
[7:21:22 AM] simboss18830 says: the ERMapper DLLs or SOs
[7:21:37 AM] simboss18830 says: anyway
[7:21:45 AM] simboss18830 says: anyone can downloade the sdk
[7:21:47 AM] simboss18830 says: and install it
[7:21:50 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Is the ECW code in C or java?
[7:22:19 AM] simboss18830 says: some time ago
[7:22:30 AM] simboss18830 says: a java wrapper ONLY for windows
[7:22:35 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Setting up an easy install process 
will be important for the client as they need to roll out across 
non-technical people.
[7:22:37 AM] simboss18830 says: was available
[7:22:51 AM] simboss18830 says: but it isn't anymore
[7:22:53 AM] simboss18830 says: I have a copy
[7:23:02 AM] simboss18830 says: but anyway it is pretty bad
[7:23:04 AM] simboss18830 says: hence I never used it
[7:23:29 AM] simboss18830 says: the code actually should be mixed
[7:23:31 AM] simboss18830 says: c/c++
[7:23:41 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Does the GDAL code use the ECW SDK or 
is it independant?
[7:23:53 AM] simboss18830 says: it uses the ECW sdk
[7:24:07 AM] simboss18830 says: the ECW code is open, which means you 
can look at it
[7:24:14 AM] simboss18830 says: but it is proprietary
[7:24:30 AM] Cameron Shorter says: "Look but don't touch"?
[7:24:30 AM] simboss18830 says: *the algorithm* is proprietary
[7:24:38 AM] simboss18830 says: for the ECW compression
[7:24:39 AM] simboss18830 says: yeah
[7:24:58 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ok
[7:25:30 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Why will it be easier to use GDAL. Is 
it because there is already a Geotools interface to GDAL?
[7:25:43 AM] simboss18830 says: it would be easier to use gdal
[7:25:44 AM] simboss18830 says: because
[7:25:54 AM] simboss18830 says: the bindings to access gdal from java
[7:26:03 AM] simboss18830 says: area available
[7:26:11 AM] simboss18830 says: and we have already played quite a bit 
with tme
[7:26:14 AM] simboss18830 says: *them*
[7:26:20 AM] simboss18830 says: anyway using SWIG
[7:26:36 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ok, makes sense.
[7:26:41 AM] simboss18830 says: it should be that hard to build the java 
bindings for the ECW package directly
[7:26:55 AM] simboss18830 says: it pretty much depends in the 
capabilities you are interested in
[7:27:03 AM] simboss18830 says: and in the level of effort you are 
willing to take
[7:28:19 AM] Cameron Shorter says: At the moment, I'd like to know 
minimum effort required. But also understand the long term goal.
[7:28:39 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Ie, I
[7:29:07 AM] Cameron Shorter says: I'd like to ensure that the code we 
write can be built upon later to extend the UDig functionality.
[7:30:30 AM] simboss18830 says: I am 99% sure we can import whater we 
would do in udig with no problems
[7:30:47 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Is the code you have written in 
geotools yet?
[7:30:56 AM] simboss18830 says: nope
[7:31:10 AM] simboss18830 says: we are not ready to release it yet
[7:31:17 AM] simboss18830 says: if we find time
[7:31:25 AM] simboss18830 says: we should start releasing part it
[7:31:30 AM] simboss18830 says: before the end of the month
[7:31:40 AM] simboss18830 says: we are already using it in a couple of 
project
[7:31:44 AM] simboss18830 says: *projects*
[7:31:55 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Ok.
[7:31:55 AM] simboss18830 says: commercial projects
[7:32:28 AM] Cameron Shorter says: How many people are working on the 
codebase? Is it just you?
[7:32:40 AM] simboss18830 says: we are 3
[7:32:48 AM] simboss18830 says: working on it
[7:32:59 AM] simboss18830 says: as I was talking about other geotools guys
[7:33:02 AM] simboss18830 says: to share the effort
[7:33:05 AM] simboss18830 says: once we go public
[7:33:32 AM] Cameron Shorter says: What is holding you back from release 
early/often?
[7:33:35 AM] simboss18830 says: I would like top open up a project unde 
java.net for it
[7:33:50 AM] simboss18830 says: there is some refactoring that I need to do
[7:33:53 AM] simboss18830 says: first of all
[7:33:55 AM] simboss18830 says: and the fact
[7:34:42 AM] simboss18830 says: that for the moment most part of the 
work was done as part of other project
[7:34:46 AM] simboss18830 says: *project*
[7:34:59 AM] simboss18830 says: I want to spend some weeks on it fufll time
[7:35:02 AM] simboss18830 says: before releasing it
[7:35:03 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Will you be setting up a seperate 
project to geotools project.
[7:35:23 AM] simboss18830 says: that's my vision
[7:35:29 AM] simboss18830 says: but we have been discussing it
[7:35:38 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ok.
[7:35:44 AM] simboss18830 says: you have to understand that
[7:35:48 AM] simboss18830 says: this work in 2 levels
[7:35:54 AM] simboss18830 says: first level
[7:36:01 AM] simboss18830 says: is done at the ImageIO level
[7:36:08 AM] simboss18830 says: and is pretty independent from Geotools
[7:36:14 AM] simboss18830 says: is the code to read RenderedImage
[7:36:19 AM] simboss18830 says: back from the original format
[7:36:25 AM] simboss18830 says: above this
[7:36:29 AM] simboss18830 says: we have the geotools plugins
[7:36:40 AM] simboss18830 says: which then wrap the renderedimages
[7:36:43 AM] simboss18830 says: into coverages
[7:37:01 AM] simboss18830 says: Most part of the work we are doing is at 
ImageIO level
[7:37:06 AM] simboss18830 says: so it is independent from geotools
[7:37:19 AM] Cameron Shorter says: okWhen you release, what will be the 
quality of ECW reading? Should I expect that all ECW files will be 
readable, or is there likely to be the occasional file that doesn't read?
[7:37:19 AM] simboss18830 says: our goal is to use it from geotools
[7:37:49 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Ditto for JP2000.
[7:38:10 AM] simboss18830 says: Talking about limitations
[7:38:20 AM] simboss18830 says: and not considering bugs :)
[7:38:32 AM] simboss18830 says: the only problem I see may be
[7:38:38 AM] simboss18830 says: with really huge images
[7:38:47 AM] simboss18830 says: like 64k*64K
[7:39:04 AM] simboss18830 says: but this is related to a java limitation
[7:39:13 AM] simboss18830 says: that I have some ideas on how to overcome
[7:39:15 AM] simboss18830 says: basically
[7:39:22 AM] simboss18830 says: it is impossible to build an image
[7:39:28 AM] simboss18830 says: even using the deferred mode
[7:39:34 AM] simboss18830 says: for which
[7:39:49 AM] simboss18830 says: width*height >Integer.MAXIMUM
[7:40:02 AM] simboss18830 says: as I said this is a java limitation
[7:40:16 AM] simboss18830 says: I have found a workaround
[7:40:25 AM] simboss18830 says: but I have had no time ot test it so far
[7:40:45 AM] Cameron Shorter says: From a user point of view, how big is 
Too Big? What sort of area/resolution would that be equivaltent to?
[7:41:15 AM] simboss18830 says: let's put it this way
[7:41:26 AM] simboss18830 says: I have been able to easil read (and also 
encode)
[7:41:36 AM] simboss18830 says: jp2 iamges that were as big as 3 gb
[7:41:54 AM] simboss18830 says: for the moment I have not gone beyond that
[7:42:05 AM] simboss18830 says: for ECW
[7:42:19 AM] simboss18830 says: I have not been able to go over 500mb 
since  don't have a license right now
[7:42:28 AM] simboss18830 says: I have one for kakadu but not for ECW
[7:42:48 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Will I need to buy a license to read 
files bigger than 500mb?
[7:43:31 AM] simboss18830 says: nope
[7:43:34 AM] simboss18830 says: just to encode them
[7:43:40 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ok
[7:43:43 AM] simboss18830 says: if you have a geotiff
[7:43:48 AM] simboss18830 says: that is
[7:43:49 AM] simboss18830 says: 600 mb
[7:43:53 AM] simboss18830 says: and you want to encode it
[7:43:55 AM] simboss18830 says: as ecw
[7:44:00 AM] simboss18830 says: you need a valid license
[7:44:06 AM] simboss18830 says: but if some does that for you
[7:44:15 AM] simboss18830 says: you can erad it with the free version
[7:44:16 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ah - ok. I can see that would be 
desirable.
[7:44:57 AM] Cameron Shorter says: What is performance like?
[7:45:14 AM] Cameron Shorter says: How long would it take to read your 
3Gig file?
[7:45:46 AM] simboss18830 says: well
[7:46:04 AM] simboss18830 says: we usually encode in a tiled fafshion
[7:46:16 AM] simboss18830 says: so you can read tile by tile
[7:46:38 AM] simboss18830 says: if you are interested in playing with 
ecw inside udig
[7:46:41 AM] simboss18830 says: that the way to go
[7:46:44 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ok, and tiled reading is fairly fast?
[7:47:04 AM] simboss18830 says: tiling+on-the-fly resolution level choice
[7:47:29 AM] simboss18830 says: you select the correct resolutions level 
depending on the viewing resolution
[7:47:37 AM] simboss18830 says: and then you load tile by tile
[7:47:47 AM] simboss18830 says: to have more responsiveness
[7:47:47 AM] Cameron Shorter says: So to implement ECW in UDig will 
require some customisation in order to set up parameters like tiling.
[7:47:52 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ?
[7:48:06 AM] simboss18830 says: unfortunately I have a imited experience 
with udig
[7:48:19 AM] simboss18830 says: but I know they use some code I wrote to 
render coverage
[7:48:26 AM] simboss18830 says: it was made for geoserver
[7:48:37 AM] simboss18830 says: so I think I would have to tweak a bit
[7:48:53 AM] simboss18830 says: but the basic architecture
[7:48:57 AM] simboss18830 says: should be alreay in place
[7:49:02 AM] simboss18830 says: I know jesse and jody
[7:49:05 AM] simboss18830 says: have a version of udig
[7:49:12 AM] simboss18830 says: that uses my work to read geotiff file
[7:49:20 AM] simboss18830 says: you can ask them to show you
[7:49:30 AM] simboss18830 says: how it performs on big geotiff  files
[7:49:38 AM] simboss18830 says: you will have to preprocess them a bit
[7:49:48 AM] Cameron Shorter says: ah - great.
[7:49:49 AM] simboss18830 says: as people usually do
[7:49:53 AM] simboss18830 says: add overviews
[7:50:00 AM] simboss18830 says: tile the image on disk
[7:50:06 AM] simboss18830 says: but then performances get pretty good
[7:50:14 AM] simboss18830 says: or you could do the same with the geoserver
[7:50:32 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Geoserver already has the pre-tiling?
[7:51:42 AM] simboss18830 says: geoserver plugins
[7:51:52 AM] simboss18830 says: that I have developed
[7:52:05 AM] simboss18830 says: look for prebuilt overviews
[7:52:10 AM] simboss18830 says: and when they exists
[7:52:19 AM] simboss18830 says: the use them as I explained before
[7:52:32 AM] simboss18830 says: otherwsei they try to do decimation on 
the fly
[7:52:52 AM] simboss18830 says: it also uses tiling to reduce the amount 
of data loaded
[7:53:51 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Lastly, I'm keen to get some 
approximate estimates from you with regards to level of effort required 
to: 1. Get you code released. 2. Get reading ECW working. 3. Get writing 
EWC working. Answers for alpha level code and release quality code.
[7:54:34 AM] simboss18830 says: k
[7:54:48 AM] Cameron Shorter says: You are welcome to get back to me on 
that if you prefer.
[7:54:58 AM] simboss18830 says: I was about to write that
[7:55:21 AM] simboss18830 says: even because it is pretty late here now :)
[7:55:29 AM] simboss18830 says: I'l talk to other guys
[7:55:32 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Yes, I understand.
[7:55:37 AM] simboss18830 says: and I 'll get back to you
[7:55:46 AM] simboss18830 says: within tuesday
[7:55:48 AM] simboss18830 says: ok?
[7:55:50 AM] Cameron Shorter says: Should we email the logs of this 
discussion to geotools-devel?
[7:56:12 AM] Cameron Shorter says: I suspect Jody and co might be 
interested in some of your answers.
[7:56:49 AM] simboss18830 says: it should be ok
[7:56:54 AM] simboss18830 says: go ahead :)
[7:57:02 AM] Cameron Shorter says: I need to get the kids ready for 
school. Thankyou very much for your time. Good night.
[7:57:11 AM] simboss18830 says: you are welcome
[7:57:18 AM] simboss18830 says: ciao!

-- 
Cameron Shorter
Systems Architect, http://lisasoft.com.au
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254


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