Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2000 09:26:45 -0700
From: "Eric G . Miller" <egm2@jps.net>
To: grass5@geog.uni-hannover.de

[...]

Well, I'm no expert but I've got at least a vague idea of a directory
hierarchy for attribute tables in GRASS:

                 [mapset]
                     |
                   [tbl]
                     |
        ------------------------------------------------
        |                 |                            |
     [free]            [vector]                      [cell]
        |                  |                            |
        |---table1       [map]                        [map]
        |                  |                            |
        |---table2         |                           cat
        |                  |---area
        ...                |---line
                           |---site(?)
                           |---node(?)
                           |---network(?)
                           |---route(?)
            
Generally, the idea is, there's a 'tbl' directory.  Under the table
directory there are three directories 'free', 'vector' and 'cell'.
'free' would refer to any extra table not bound to a spatial layer
through a cat #.  Under both 'vector' and 'cell' would be a directory
for each raster or vector map.  Only integer cells are considered, maybe
all types?  Under vector, there'd be files for line attributes and area
attributes keyed on cat#.  I don't know about sites or labels or
possible additions to the current vector model.  At the top level
directory 'tbl' some kind of file listing 'tied' tables and their join
key(s) could be listed (so things like the USDA SSURGO database could be
accomodated).

This'd all take a bit more consideration... Definitely a post GRASS 5.0
stable thing.

Eric G . Miller