[ANNOUNCE] MapServer Console: AXL 2 Mapserver converter

[Umberto Nicoletti]

During the last month I have been working on a conversion program
called MapServer Console that strives to generates valid and working
mapserver .map files from AXL files.
The software is currently in beta* and is available from cvs and
through sourceforge.

I haven't had a chance to try it on Windows yet so I cannot guarantee
that it will work reliably or at all on that platform. All other
UNIX-like platforms that can run Java at least 1.4 should present no
problems.

The software is at the site:

http://msconsole.sourceforge.net

Notes for Windows users are on the download page:

http://msconsole.sourceforge.net/?page_id=11

And the feature list is here:

http://msconsole.sourceforge.net/?page_id=7

Please note that the site allows for anonymous comments, so you can
post your thoughts there, if relevant.

The AXL files I usually work with are generated from Arc Explorer 9,
so the features available are limited. On the other hand customization
is very easy so new features will be supported with a reasonable
amount of work.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have done while writing it!
Umberto

* I called this release a beta only because the number of supported
features is not complete, but in fact the sofwtare is very stable.