I agree with you that for dealing with this general purpose data, it is very difficult to create a database model which can capture all the information needed without being overly complex, a plain text format is much easier to get started with and can still be very expressive. The downside is that all the data is "trapped" in a sense - you lose the power to query and manipulate it like you can with a database. For my survey the database I've created and software to interface with it works much easier then having to manage text files, however it is clear that there is a whole slew of complications with handling survey data in the general case.
My project isn't available online - It is not a traditional cave survey as it is not of a cave! It is a survey of active and abandoned electric/gas/drainage/sewage/etc. tunnels using in person survey data, historical data, construction data, etc. Therion is used for map production, loop closure, and to generate a SQL export which is then read back into my database for absolute coordinates, measurement errors, etc. We are just past 20 miles surveyed so far, though because it contains locations and access to active utility tunnels I'm not able to release it for safety concerns. Carl On Mar 17, 2012, at 3:46 AM, Martin Sluka wrote: > > On 16.3.2012, at 20:57, Carl Magnuson wrote: > >> being able to access and modify the data in more advanced ways then simply >> editing text files > > Hi Carl, > > it is your way how to use therion. But there are many others they need > something else. Not "such complicated" as SQL and so on. There were many > projects in history to put all data about caves, cave systems, karst areas to > a database. But as I know, no one is widely used. And no one is really > universal. Everywhere and everytime one find exception from primary analyse > and what to do? Change structure of all databases filled with data with new > version? > > I think if data will be in plain text format as simple as possible such data > are very easy to interprete and to generate. And to edit too. Not for > hundreds of files of course. > > Is your project presented somewhere on net? > > m.s. > > > _______________________________________________ > Therion mailing list > Therion at speleo.sk > http://mailman.speleo.sk/mailman/listinfo/therion
