[mapserver-users] simplicity

[Puneet Kishor]

Hi Perry,

I have documented my troubles sort of (I mean, my rant itself was a
documentation, no ;-) ).

Seriously, I am gonna try and create a successful MacOS X package, and I
will document my one success instead of the numerous failures.

Will anounce it when it is ready.

Thanks,

pk/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Pericles S. Nacionales [mailto:pnaciona at gis.umn.edu]
> Sent: Monday, December 24, 2001 4:34 PM
> To: Puneet Kishor
> Cc: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> Subject: Re: [mapserver-users] simplicity
> 
> 
> Puneet,
> 
> Sorry to hear all the hassles you've gone through.  By the 
> way, did you
> document all that?  It's exactly the one thing that we've all been
> complaining about... but few people contribute.  And I'm as guilty as
> anybody else.  
> 
> Happy Christmas, even though the war may not be over yet.
> 
> -Perry N.
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 24 Dec 2001, Puneet Kishor wrote:
> 
> > this is a (hopefully constructive) harangue... so, please 
> keep that in mind
> > before flaming me...
> > 
> > as you all know I have now been on this list for about 6 
> months now. In that
> > time (that is when I first started using Mapserver) I have 
> learned a lot
> > about Mapserver, its developers, its community. One word 
> describes them
> > all... fabulous.
> > 
> > Now that we are past the self-back-patting, here's the 
> harangue. Mapserver
> > is just simply too difficult.
> > 
> > I have now successfully run it on Windoze, RH, and MacOS X. 
> But it has been
> > a pain in the arse to setup.
> > 
> > 1. I made a mapserver app on RH using PHP and MySQL... 
> worked great, but the
> > darn PHP was not compiled with XBase, so I had to do 
> gyrations to get to the
> > shapeindex. Of course, that is not the fault of the PHP so, 
> but the person
> > who compiled PHP on that box in the first place. 
> > 
> > 2. But then, I had to move the app to a Windoze box running 
> Apache. I
> > quickly learned that my app wouldn't run on Windoze because 
> Apache was
> > multi-threaded and the PHP/Mapscript.so didn't support 
> that... had to be run
> > as a CGI. I quickly tried to learn about that and decided 
> to "screw it... I
> > will rewrite it as a Perl app." 
> > 
> > 3. Then I learned that Perl/Mapscript doesn't work on 
> Windoze very well
> > because of problems with SWIG. So, I said "screw it" to the 
> entire app and
> > decided to make it work on my MacOS X Powerbook. 
> > 
> > 4. I had to first get gd to work. To make gd work, I had to 
> compile libpng
> > and libjpeg (god help me if I wanted gd to do gifs... that 
> was another
> > runaround). I got all that done when I discovered that I didn't have
> > freetype in my gd. I said "screw it" (there's a pattern here, no!). 
> > 
> > 5. Btw, while the Mapserver site provides links to all 
> these packages, it
> > doesn't mention all the possible prerequisites, at least 
> not conveniently. 
> > 
> > 6. Well, I got Mapserver to run when I discovered I hadn't 
> configured PHP
> > (well, I didn't read the configure docs properly) and that I had to
> > recompile. I looked at the configure docs and was 
> confounded with this
> > statement...
> > 
> > --with-php=DIR          Specify directory where PHP3/PHP4 
> source tree is
> >                           installed. Required in order to 
> compile the
> >                           PHP/MapScript module.
> > 
> > I am sorry, but I had no idea what the heck a "source tree" was. 
> > 
> > 7. Once I figured out what a "source tree" was, I found I 
> had none. You see,
> > my PB came with PHP already installed on it as part of the 
> operating system.
> > There was no source tree. Now what do I do? Muck with my 
> already working PHP
> > setup by downloading the source and recompiling it, or say 
> "screw it" once
> > again to setting up PHP. 
> > 
> > 8. Eventually, I did just that... downloaded the source and 
> recompiled a
> > program that is already working fine on my computer, 
> recompiled Mapserver,
> > and discoverd that I couldn't dynamically load the dl(). 
> "screw it" again.
> > 
> > 9. By now I have spent more time making mapserver and its 
> various components
> > install and setup than actually creating an app with 
> Mapserver. This not how
> > it should be. 
> > 
> > I know it is a complicated program with many dependencies, 
> and works on many
> > different OSs, but hey, if it is difficult for the user 
> then it is difficult
> > for the user. Maybe it should come with a disclaimer... not 
> for non-geeks!
> > 
> > Here's a constructive suggestion --
> > 
> > 1. Why not form separate teams responsible for versions on 
> different OSs?
> > All these teams can be in turn coordinated by a central, core team
> > comprising SDL, DM, a few other.
> > 
> > 2. The discussion forums can be sub-categorized into 
> "installation issues",
> > "OS Specific Issues", "Database Issues", "Geo format 
> problems", "Various
> > flavors of Mapscript," etc.
> > 
> > 3. I would love to be a part of the MacOS X team. My first 
> aim would be to
> > package every conceivable component and prepare a binary 
> that other MacOS X
> > users can simply download, double-click and install. Most 
> all MacOS X
> > directory and dev tools layouts are identical, and I am 
> sure other MacOS X
> > users will appreciate not having to screw around scrounging 
> for gd, and
> > freetype, and Proj4 and gdal and libjpeg, etc. In fact, I 
> would make the
> > package ready with a crontab entry which would do garbage 
> collection,
> > require a specific temp directory (so it can successfully 
> clean out the
> > junk), and even install a working CGI, Perl, PHP application, and an
> > espresso machine.
> > 
> > Ok, this is long enough. If you have cared to read this 
> far, please respond
> > with the knowledge that I am absolutely in awe of what 
> Mapserver can do, and
> > have one and only one aim for it and its developers... 
> world domination and
> > Nobel GIS prize.
> > 
> > pk/
> > 
>