Re: [Gpsbabel-misc] Regarding File Conversion

[Robert L. <rob...@us...>]

Ron Parker wrote:
> There's a bit of a gap in support between [an1, shp]  in that shape 
> files support an arbitrary database table for each geometric primitive.  

'Tis true, they don't have a natural mapping.  Shape is certainly a
forced fit into GPSBabel's internal concepts -dictated by a majority of
the market- for such things.

> I suspect they might be slightly outside the purview of GPSBabel,
> though technically an1 files probably are as well.  The largest
> hurdle, though, would be that nobody's contributed code to handle
> them.  I'd look into it myself, but I don't have the Plus version of

As is often the case, Ron neatly summarizes this one.

Sometimes, someone is motivated enough to hammer a square peg into
GPSBabel's various round holes.  So far, nobody has wanted the shapefile
support badly enough to solve this in the general case.  There is
some support for shp, but pretty much any use of them requires custom
programming.   

(It probably doesn't help motivate the general programming public that
the folks wanting shape support seem to be trying to avoid buying big
bucks packages yet not underwriting development costs...I think the
altruism factor is more prominent for the programmer trying to help a
stranger crowbar his own data out of some random $30 program holding
his hiking waypoints hostage than it is to get that same data for a GIS
professional out of the big-ticket packages.)

RJL

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