What geospatial leaves out, and what to use instead
Some geospatial work is left out of the language. Each row says why, and what to use instead:
| Left out | Why | Instead |
|---|---|---|
geo.buffer |
PostGIS buffers a geography by projecting it to a planar system it picks, so the result depends on PROJ's choice and can't be reproduced in Jadpo's code |
within(distance:) and Circle for "near"; a provider package for drawn buffers |
| Coordinate systems other than WGS84 (British National Grid and the rest) | Accurate conversion needs datum grids (OSTN15 for Great Britain), megabytes of data per system that every wasm32 build would carry | EastingNorthing kept with its Crs; a provider package later |
Straight edges on longitude and latitude (geometry columns) |
Two edge meanings would split every operation in two; the standard library stores geometries as geography |
Great circles (Edges are great circles) |
| Routing, travel times, geocoding | Network data and paid services | Provider packages (Integrations) |
| Nearest first without a radius, farthest first, pages by distance | Disagree with geo.distance or can't use the index |
A radius (Nearest first inside a radius) |
| Simplifying, unions, splitting at the antimeridian | None of the standard library's scenario applications needs them; each is a large algorithm | Later, when one does |
GeometryCollection, and a Feature with no geometry |
Rare, and each makes every consumer handle an extra case | A MultiPolygon, or the right geometry type |
| Altitude in any operation | WGS84's operations are on the surface; height above the ellipsoid isn't height above the ground | Kept and stored, never measured |
Markdown for agents: /docs/geospatial-left-out.md.Built from Jadpo main at a707efb.