Read / convert ESRI grid raster files with open source client?

Is it possible to view and/or convert ESRI grid rasters in an open
source client?

Also, is there an open source spatial data browser similar to
ArcCatalog?

Thanks very much.

Dana

Looks like Quantum GIS can read ESRI's grid format (*.adf), but uDig
cannot.

How does one tell which *.adf is the correct one to open if the name is
non-obvious? For a particular raster, I had to randomly choose *.adf
files in a folder to get the raster to appear.

Sure would help to have an open source equivalent of ArcCatalog.

GDAL at www.gdal.org can read the ESRI grid rasters, but can not create them.


Willem

dananrg@yahoo.com wrote:


--
Willem van Deursen, The Netherlands
wvandeursen_nospam@nospam_carthago.nl
replace _nospam@nospam_ for @ to get a valid email address
www.carthago.nl

Thanks Willem. I thought GDAL was a library, not a GIS client. I will
check it out.

The open source GIS clients I've seen so far seem to be far behind
ArcMap / ArcGIS (with all its extensions). This means ESRI will retain
its dominance in GIS analysis / map generation for many years to come.
That's too bad, since ArcMap is too expensive to use for pro-bono or
low-budget projects.

Dana,

ESRI is pricey, and being a user for the last couple of years I'm kinda
partial to it. As far as the dominance, yeah it's big but Intergraph
and Bentley ain't too far behind, not too mention Google.

If you look at Manifold or Maptitude, you can get pretty much the same
functionality for it for about 10% of the price.

As far as an open source ArcCatalog that is a wonderful idea that one
wonders why it was't thought of before. I've used GDAL a few times and
I got GRASS to work, but it's just too much of a learning curve to use
it for any big projects.

Just a few thoughts