[OSM-dev] OT: OGR, Douglas-Peucker

[Richard Fairhurst]

Quoting Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se>:

> OGR implements line strings, but apparently not b-splines.  Is
> this good or bad?  Doesn't anybody in GIS use splines?

Amazingly few. This surprised me when I started poking around with GIS stuff,
but I guess it makes some sense when you consider how most tracks (or strings,
or whatever) are digitised - either by point surveying with a GPS or similar,
or often, by tracing individual points from a paper map on a cartographic
draughtsman's table.

As for Douglas-Peucker, I couldn't find a library either when I looked 
last year
(http://www.systemed.net/blog/entry050617185604.html). I eventually settled on
importing the lines into Illustrator, using the excellent Simplify Path
function there, and exporting again - but that's not really a very sensible
solution except in very specific circumstances.

Richard