[Community] line_locate_point() in Python, and general confusion of a GIS newbie

[Michael Elsdörfer]

Sean,

 > useful outside the context of a database. A nearest point algorithm
 > wouldn't be all that hard to implement in Python and I'm willing to
 > help you find a good home for it. Maybe in a Shapely analytic
 > package

So generally, Shapely would be the thing to use if I want to those kinds 
of calculations using Geometries in Python?

The PostGIS code indeed doesn't look all that complicated. Though I'm 
slightly in a hurry for the particular project I need this for, so I 
might just have to go with using PostgreSQL for now - not my ideal 
solution, but probably quicker.

Michael