SpatiaLite - VirtualShape [version 2.1 alpha]

updated version [2.2] is here
previous version [2.0] is here

the 2.1 alpha is an interim release supporting:

full UNICODE UTF-8 for SQLite and locale charsets for input and output
a new, still experimental GUI tool supporting DB management in an user friendly way

SQLite's next version (3.6) will support the definitive RTree Spatial Index, and is expected to introduce lots of changes in Virtual Tables
accordingly to this, release of SpatiaLite 2.1 stable version will be deferred [August 2008], in order to support the lastest Sqlite 3.6 when available

Quick intro

SQLite is a popular DBMS, simple, robust, easy to use and really lightweight
each SQLite database is simply a file; you can freely copy it, compress it, send it on a LAN or WEB with no complication at all
They are also portables; the same database file will work on Windows, Linux, MacOs etc
the SpatiaLite extension enables SQLite to support spatial data too [aka GEOMETRY], in a way conformant to OpenGis specifications
- supports standard WKT and WKB formats
- implements SQL spatial functions such as AsText(), GeomFromText(), Area(), PointN() and alike
- the complete set of OpenGis functions is supported via GEOS, this comprehending sophisticated spatial analysis functions such as Overlaps(), Touches(), Contains() and so on
- supports full Spatial metadata along the OpenGis specifications
- supports importing and exporting from / to shapefiles
- supports coordinate reprojection via PROJ.4 and EPSG geodetic parameters dataset
- supports locale charsets via GNU libiconv
- implements a true Spatial Index based on the still experimental SQLite's RTree extension
the VirtualShape extension enables SQLite to access shapefiles as VIRTUAL TABLEs
- you can then perform standard SQL queries on external shapefiles, with no need for importing or converting them
the GUI tool supports all this, in an user friendly way

SpatiaLite and VirtualShape are developed and maintained by Alessandro Furieri a.furieri@lqt.it
They are open source software released under the LGPL license

documentation	the complete reference guide			manual previous version and not yet updated ... TBD
	a quick tutorial ... the fastest way to get started ...			tutorial
	List of Spatial SQL supported functions			SQL functions
	a sample preloaded database [as used within tutorial]			test-2-1.zip
	a sample preloaded database [as used within tutorial]			test-2-1.sqlite.gz
binary distributions	Windows installation notes		spatialite executable [statically linked]	spatialite-2.1-win-bin.zip
			spatialite-gui *GUI tool* [statically linked, GPLv3 license]	spatialite-2.1-win-gui.zip
			static libraries	N.A.
			DLLs	N.A.
	Linux installation notes		spatialite executable [statically linked]	spatialite-2.1-linux-i686-bin.tar.gz
			spatialite-gui *GUI tool* [statically linked, GPLv3 license]	spatialite-2.1-linux-i686-gui.tar.gz
			libraries [both static and shared ones]	N.A.
	Mac OS X installation notes		spatialite executable [statically linked]	spatialite-2.1-MacOsX-10.5.4-PPC-bin.tar.gz spatialite-2.1-MacOsX-10.5.4-i386-bin.tar.gz TBD
			spatialite-gui *GUI tool* [statically linked, GPLv3 license]	spatialite-2.1-MacOsX-10.5.4-PPC-gui.tar.gz spatialite-2.1-MacOsX-10.5.4-i386-gui.tar.gz TBD
			libraries [both static and shared ones]	N.A.
sources version history	build notes	zipfile		spatialite-2.1.zip
		tarball, gzipped		spatialite-2.1.tar.gz
		GUI tool sources		spatialite-gui.tar.gz
useful SQL scripts	the init_spatialite.sql script required in order to initialize the Spatial MetaData tables [geometry_columns and spatial_ref_sys]			init_spatialite.zip
				init_spatialite.sql.gz
	some SQL scripts for testing purposes			test-sql-scripts.zip
	some SQL scripts for testing purposes			test-sql-scripts.tar.gz