Construction of interfaces for the exchange of geographic data

1 April 1990

journal article
research article
Published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Geographical Information Science

Vol. 4 (2) , 147-156
https://doi.org/10.1080/02693799008941536

Abstract

Transferring data from one geographic information system to another commonly requires a sequence of interfaces, software packages that convert data from one format to another. Construction is described of a model interface that uses a relational database management system and compiler-building tools that work from a machine-readable definition of a data format. Parallels are drawn with conversion and translation problems in other areas from which software tools might be obtained for automation of interface construction. Three interfacing strategies are examined. In particular, the advantages and limitations are discussed for the strategy of using a standard interchange format. The principal conclusion is that achieving a widely-accepted method of defining geographic data formats should be an important objective of efforts at standardization.

Keywords

This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:

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