GDAL
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Geospatial Data Abstraction Library | |
| Developer: | Open Source Geospatial Foundation |
|---|---|
| Latest release: | 1.3.2 / May 4, 2006 |
| OS: | Cross-platform |
| Use: | Library |
| License: | X/MIT |
| Website: | GDAL/OGR homepage |
GDAL is a translator library for raster geospatial data formats that is released under an X/MIT style Open Source license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats. It also comes with a variety of useful command-line utilities for data translation and processing.
The related OGR library (which lives within the GDAL source tree) provides a similar capability for simple features vector data.
GDAL was primarily developed by Frank Warmerdam until the release of version 1.3.2, when maintainership was officially transferred to the GDAL/OGR Project Management Committee under the Open Source Geospatial Foundation.
GDAL/OGR is considered a major project in the Open Source and also in the commercial GIS community due to its widespread use and comprehensive set of functionalities. In the words of Howard Butler "I see GDAL as the glibc/glibc++ of the geospatial software world. It's open, it provides core functionality, I can't understand how anybody gets anything done without it."
[edit] Software which uses GDAL/OGR
Several software programs use GDAL/OGR, allowing them to read and write GIS files in many formats. Such programs include:
[edit] References
- Mapping Hacks by Schuyler Erle, Rich Gibson and Jo Walsh (2005) O'Reilly ISBN 0-596-00703-5
- Web Mapping Illustrated by Tyler Mitchell (2005) O'Reilly ISBN 0-596-00865-1
