PostgreSQL 7.2 is currently in beta, and people might be tempted to try to use it with PostGIS 0.6.2. Unfortunately, due to a change in the API hooks for the GiST index, PostGIS 0.6.2 will not work with PostgreSQL 7.2. When PostgreSQL 7.2 is officially released, work on converting PostGIS to support the new indexes will begin. We might drop support for the 7.1 series at that time.
Version 0.6.2 is mostly a bug fix release with fixes for the Shape file loader. There is also a SQL file full of spatial reference definitions to load into the SPATIAL_REF_SYS table.
Astute observers will note the addition of the postgis_chip.c
file. This is the start of support for raster datatypes. There is no
documentation on this because it is still in development and completely
unstable.
The basic idea is that large rasters can be subdivided into smaller chips for storage. The chips will be small enough to fit within the PostgreSQL page size (about 8kb). The chips will be indexable (eventually) and there will be client functions available to retrieve sets of chips and aggregate them into a single image. The result will be random access raster coverages.
The slideshow Dave used for his OSDB2 presentation is available (PDF|PPT|Japanese PPT). Without his inimitable delivery, it is not nearly the same. :)
We have a new, hopefully more aesthetically pleasing, site design now! At a minimum, the multiple-page approach gives more space for adding information.
Also, version 0.6.1 has been released, with improvements to the loader/dumper and some cygwin bug fixes.
Yet more OGC specification functions, changes to internal format to support SRID, added SPATIAL_REF_SYS and GEOMETRY_COLUMNS metadata tables. Upgraded Mapserver support.
Dave Blasby will be giving a presentation on spatial databases in general and PostGIS in particular at the Open Source Database Summit in Providence, Rhode Island on September 25, 2001.
Support for OGC functions has improved, with lots of the easier ones added. And most exciting: PostGIS can now be used as a data source by the University of Minnesota MapServer! More information on how to do this will be forthcoming shortly!
Several new functions have been added, most notably support for Well-Known Binary. Documentation is getting better and there is a WKB example application. Some testing has been done and retrieval speed on a million-tuple table with a GiST index for a small query frame is under 0.1 seconds on our test machine. Looking very good!
This release is largely untested and does not include data loading. The JDBC and documentation are pretty primitive as well. Please try it and send feedback to the mailing list.
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 2.5.4.
