At 06:19 PM 9/03/2004 +0000, you wrote:

>Hi!
>
>I'd like to know if FB supports spatial data.

What exactly do you mean by "supports spatial data"? Firebird is a
database management system. You can store spatial data in any of the
conventional GIS formats. But Firebird doesn't have any predefined table
structures for special purposes, other than its own metadata tables that
are created when the database is created...

>Is there any package or

Metadata kits seem to be widely available.

>king of a plug-in code that I can use?

To do what, I ask? Typically, you would write views or stored procedures
to perform searches and generate the output required by *your* GIS
application. Such metadata would be "pluggable" to the extent that it were
generic to all GIS applications.

>If not, have anyone heard if it will be available in future releases?

Releases of Firebird? No, there has never been any proposal to include
predefined metadata for any external application in the engine.

OTOH, the idea of a third party developing an open source metadata
framework for GIS is a pretty good one...possibly there is already one out
there developed for InterBase, that could be built upon (or someone just
waiting for the opportunity...)

/heLen