[R-sig-Geo] best data model for line segments with multiple attributes?

[David Holstius]

Dear all,

I'm in need of a suitable class for representing individual line segments with multiple attributes. It's for the public interface to a line source dispersion modeling package (on R-forge as "Rcaline"), so I'd like it to be moderately future-proof if possible.

The spatstat2::psp class is closest to what I'm looking for, except it doesn't exist (yet?). :-)

Can you offer advice? Should I build off of sp::SpatialLinesDataFrame? If so, should I rely on subclassing, delegation, or some other design pattern? Most of my experience in programming has been in Python, so I'm less familiar with best practices/idioms in R. (I'm learning about S4 and reference classes, but slowly.)

Or maybe I need a SpatialLineDataFrame (without the "s"!)?

Building on the considerable work of others in 'sp' and 'spatstat' has been of great use so far. I thank you for your time & attention, and I apologize if this has come up before. I have not been able to find anything and am new to r-sig-geo.

Very best,
David

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David Holstius
PhD Student in Environmental Health Sciences
UC Berkeley School of Public Health