[Liblas-commits] hg: start on a release plan

[liblas-commits at liblas.org]

changeset 98b79bd4ef7f in /Volumes/Data/www/liblas.org/hg
details: http://hg.liblas.orghg?cmd=changeset;node=98b79bd4ef7f
summary: start on a release plan

diffstat:

 doc/development/index.txt        |    1 +
 doc/development/release_plan.txt |  131 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 132 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diffs (146 lines):

diff -r ed85f7afc4a9 -r 98b79bd4ef7f doc/development/index.txt
--- a/doc/development/index.txt	Thu Jul 15 14:49:18 2010 -0500
+++ b/doc/development/index.txt	Mon Jul 19 13:02:37 2010 -0500
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
    source
    format_elements
    Motivation <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc>
+   Release Plan <release_plan>
 
 
 Authors
diff -r ed85f7afc4a9 -r 98b79bd4ef7f doc/development/release_plan.txt
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/doc/development/release_plan.txt	Mon Jul 19 13:02:37 2010 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+.. _release_plan:
+
+******************************************************************************
+libLAS 1.6.0 Release Notes and Schedule
+******************************************************************************
+
+
+:Author: Howard Butler
+:Contact: hobu.inc at gmail dot com
+:Date: 7/19/2010
+
+.. contents::
+    :depth: 3
+    :backlinks: none
+    
+Even though there has not been a major release of libLAS since April of 2009,
+development has continued on the library. A number of new features, updates,
+and bug fixes have been developed for the next libLAS release, to be called
+`libLAS 1.6`. This section outlines some of the work that has (or will) gone
+on.
+
+Major features
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The following are upcoming major features for libLAS 1.6.
+
+Significant internal refactoring of C++ reading/writing code
+..............................................................................
+
+The C++ reader and writer code of libLAS was a bit inflexible, and contained
+significant duplication. Giant updates would be required to the code as the
+ASPRS LAS standard committee adds new versions of the
+specification.  Additionally, the old code's design was a bit rigid for 
+adding more generic things.
+
+The reduction in duplication means going to only one place to make changes to 
+the code.  In addition to not repeating ourselves, it provides us more 
+flexibility to add new features and extensibility to allow the reader and 
+writers to be overridden by user code.  
+
+Generic interfaces
+..............................................................................
+
+A number of generic interfaces have been added to libLAS to support dynamic
+polymorphism. See <liblas/liblas.hpp> for the C++ interfaces. By implementing
+these interfaces, you can add your own reader/writer implementations as well
+as provide custom filtering and transformation capability.
+
+Schema description support
+..............................................................................
+
+Though it is specifically allowed by the standard but not widely implemented,
+it is possible to store extra data attached to each point after the requisite
+PointFormat data are stored. There is neither a regularized way to describe
+these data nor a way to capture metadata about this. To this end, I have
+proposed an XML schema document that could be stored in a VLR as well as
+schema-aware reader and writer implementations that can utilize that VLR to
+work with the data. See <https://lidarbb.cr.usgs.gov/index.php?showtopic=9075>
+for more details on the initial proposal of schema support.
+
+Alternative formats
+..............................................................................
+
+Support for reading the TerraSolid bin format as well as writing the 
+Oracle Point Cloud format will be provided for libLAS 1.6, but this code will
+be moving to a new home shortly.  See `libPC`_ for more details on these 
+developments
+
+Generic spatial indexing
+..............................................................................
+
+A octree-based spatial index is being developed for libLAS to speed up random,
+bounding-box-based queries to LAS files. It is expected that this will be
+released as part of libLAS 1.6, but it is not yet complete. The index will be
+able to be stored within VLRs (requires a file rewrite) in addition to in a
+file alongside the .las file.
+
+Migration to CMake
+..............................................................................
+
+
+libLAS has migrated to CMake to manage compilation. See
+`libLAS Compilation <http://liblas.org/compilation.html>`__ for specific details how to use CMake
+to build libLAS from source.
+
+Minor features
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Caching reader
+..............................................................................
+
+A reader implementation that provides data caching will be provided at 
+libLAS 1.6. If your data reading involves reading the data in multiple passes 
+through the file, you can utilize the cached reader to cache the points 
+(up to the size of the entire file) for faster repeated and random access.  
+
+Seek support
+..............................................................................
+
+It is now possible to seek to a specific point in the file and start reading 
+points.  This can significantly speed up the "random sampling" access strategy 
+where one starts reading a run of points at a specific location in the file 
+and then moves to a different location.
+
+Classification class
+..............................................................................
+
+A class is now provided to abstract the LAS classification value and help 
+interpret the bit fields that are present for synthetic, key point, and withheld 
+types.  
+
+Vertical datum description support
+..............................................................................
+
+libLAS, in combination with a very recent GDAL/proj.4, can be used to preserve 
+and describe the vertical datum GeoTIFF keys that are present in LAS files.
+
+Release Schedule
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+We expect to have at least two beta release before the final release of libLAS 1.6. 
+
+The following dates are approximate:
+
+* Beta 1: 8/20/2010
+* Beta 2: 9/10/2010
+* 1.6.0: 9/30/2010
+
+
+
+