[mapserver-dev] MapServer collect Project Info for presentations, abstracts...

[Astrid Emde]

On Wed, March 2, 2011 6:53 pm, Stephen Woodbridge wrote:
> On 3/2/2011 1:31 PM, Astrid Emde wrote:
>
>> Hello mapserver-devs,
>>
>>
>> I created a trac-wiki page:
>>
>>
>> http://trac.osgeo.org/mapserver/wiki/ProjectInfo
>>
>>
>> The idea about this page is to collect MapServer Project Info for
>> presentations, abstracts...
>>
>> It would be nice to find information like history, number of
>> mailing-list members, committers, challenges of the last/new version...
>> It would be
>> easy to keep this page up to date and take it as a base for
>> presentations.
>>
>> The actual reason, why I created this page was that we have a
>> presentation on FOSSGIS in april 2011 about "MapServer 6.0" and it would
>> be good to collect the information and reuse it maybe for the next event
>> which may be FOSS4G.
>>
>>
>> We also want to make code examples and screenshots and it would be good
>> to reuse this material in the MapServer documentation or for the next
>> presentation.
>>
>> I discussed all this already with Jeff. What do you think about this
>> idea? Or is there a similar page with this information already?
>>
>>
>> I do not want to stress you with this idea as you are working on the
>> next release. It is more the idea on proving documentation and material
>> that we all can use.
>
> Astrid,
>
>
> I have a few of thoughts on this.
>
>
> 1. we already have a process where we document the changes that we are
> making. While this may not be easy for everyone to follow, your page might
> assist in this by collecting links into a comment place. For example,
> there are these documents already:
>
> a. Rev 6.0 Release Plan b. A list of RFC documents describing
> implementation of new features and code changes and the use cases for them
>  c. The RFC's reference Tickets for code that is planned, submitted, and
> documented so delivery of the features can be tracked. d. List archives if
> you want to read more about the discussion of what, why and how some
> specific feature was built.
>
> 2. I do not think that the dev's want to update another document which
> would be somewhat redundant when compared to the above.
>
> 3. Depending on when planning takes place, and what availability of
> resources are, reality can very greatly from a potential plan so any page
> like you suggest needs this caveat and probably needs to be changed as
> plans firm up. For example, 6.0 is trying to freeze and the release plan
> still has things on it that we already know will not get integrated.
>
> So the bottom line from my point of view, others are welcome to
> disagree, is that having a page like you suggest might have some value to
> people building presentation and if you want to build something and put in
> the effort to vet the content with the developers and to keep it up to
> date, that would be a great way to contribute to the project. I do not
> think it is realistic to expect the developers to keep this page up to
> date as we find it hard to keep the current documents up to date until the
> feature is done and integrated.
>
> Best regards,
> -Steve W

Hello Steve,

thanks for your answer.

My intention was not to set up a redundant page and I agree that it is not
realistic to expect the developer to keep this page up to date. The idea
is fine to use this page to link to the important pages. I will have a
look around and try to refer to the links.

Astrid