Two months ago Barend Gehrels announced on the OSGeo Discuss list ongoing Open Source project called Generic Geometry Library, GGL in short.
The Generic Geometry Library provides a generic implementation of geometry algorithms, working with geometry types provided by the library itself as well as user-defined types. The library is implemented in C++ programming language with extensive use of elements of metaprogramming like class (type) templates, static polymorphism and compile-time execution. Consequently, GGL is built upon two of the greatest pieces of C++ code ever written by humanity: C++ Standard Library and Boost C++ Libraries.
In my opinion, this project is valuable and have potential which may interest many of us, FOSS4G users and developers. The OSGeo Foundation agreed to host this mailing list ggl@lists.osgeo.org dedicated to discussions development and use of the Generic Geometry Library.
How does this compare to GEOS or JTS? I noticed on the OGC page that WKT and linestring/linear_ring etc are defined; the OGC has moved on from these constructs to ISO19107 …
Jody,
I’ve just started to play with GGL and I’m still reviewing its features, so it’s hard for me to compare. GGL seems to pursue very similar goals, especially comparing to GEOS as it is focused on extensive use of all the power of C++ programming language. However, GGL does not cover as wide range of algorithms as GEOS does.
GGL is in quite early stage of development comparing to GEOS and it’s still walking through preview phases.
I’m not sure what’s the GGL plan regarding OGC vs ISO19107. The GGL core team is better to ask to, so perhaps you could post to ggl@lists.osgeo.org.
Where are the source code repositories? Is there a (documentation) wiki? A trac instance to report bugs?
Milo, the Subversion repository has not been published yet. The Wiki and Trac (bug tracker) is hosted by OSGeo and works in the same way as it works for GDAL, MapServer, etc. See the Trac frontpage for download information.
By the way, I’ve forwarded your questions to Barend Gehrels (GGL project manager) and he’s going to provide you with further details.
Hi Milo,
There are three ways to access the sources:
- https://svn.boost.org/svn/boost/sandbox/ggl, the boost sandbox. This is the version of last February
- http://geometrylibrary.geodan.nl, here is documentation available as well as zipped sources. Same version, February 2009
- SVN at Geodan, the latest (development) version available, of sources and documentation (and tests and examples). This also has new intersections and clipping.
We will move this to the Boost Sandbox as well in the next preview (now scheduled October 2009), but currently it is no problem to give you SVN access to our SVN repository.
Regards / groeten, Barend