Add a new org.apache.sis.storage.gdal module providing an implementation of org.apache.sis.storage.DataStore which uses GDAL for reading rasters. This new module will use the java.lang.foreign package (a.k.a. "Panama") for invoking native methods, thus avoiding the need to bundle native code (JNI) for linking Java to C/C++.

Note

This GDAL binding is a fallback for reading formats that are not yet supported directly by Apache SIS. GDAL can read and write a lot more data formats than SIS does, but is not necessarily faster or more capable than pure Java implementations when one is available. Actually, our benchmarks suggests that pure Java data stores, when well written, are often faster, but this is not necessarily because of GDAL since the "Java - C/C++" bindings adds a cost.

Limitations

Initial version will only read raster. Reading vectors and writing are deferred to another release.