[Gdal-dev] MITAB driver update

[Frank Warmerdam]

Daniel Morissette wrote:
> Talking of release timing, I have made several changes in the MITAB 
> library since the last update of the OGR copy of MITAB (currently MITAB 
> 1.5.1) and was wondering when would be the best time to sync the OGR 
> copy. Is a stable release of GDAL/OGR a good time to upgrade the MITAB 
> driver to a new version that includes new features or should that be 
> done only in trunk?
> 
> I'm about to release MITAB 1.6.1 and the changes since 1.5.1 are more 
> than bug fixes, one of the changes is a complete rework of the way the 
> spatial index is generated. There are also a few important fixes to the 
> collection code that was introduced in MITAB 1.5.1, i.e. the current 
> OGR-MITAB based on 1.5.1 may produce corrupt files when writing 
> collections.
> 
> I think it is relatively safe and would be beneficial to update the 
> MITAB driver in the stable branch for this release of GDAL, but before 
> upgrading the driver I wanted to find out what was the PSC's opinion 
> about making non-trivial changes inside drivers in the stable branch.

Daniel,

Generally speaking I'd be hesitant to pull in substantially altered
supporting libraries in the stable branch.  But the exception I think would
be when that is the only practical way to get important bug fixes.  So, yes
I think the 1.6.1 code ought to pulled into the stable branch (as well as
trunk).

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
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