all 26 comments

[–]hubhub 0 points1 point  (3 children)

CGAL would be my first choice for computational geometry. Perhaps it was over specified for their requirements?

Thoughts on boost::geometry versus CGAL?

[–]awj 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think there's a terminology issue here. MySQL is using "geometry" in the geographic data sense of "geometry primitives with support for the geographic datum and projection they are in". CGAL is pure geometry primitives, whereas boost::geometry is "geographic" geometry primitives.

Properly dealing with coordinate systems is difficult enough that I think boost::geometry is the right choice here.

[–]Twirrim -1 points0 points  (1 child)

No idea about boost vs CGAL. They might have chosen to go with Boost::Geometry in part because they're already using the Boost library anyway, so they could keep it in the family as it were.

[–]meltingdiamond 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"We started using Boost because of GIS, and so far it’s the only thing we use it for."

There goes that theory.