MapServer Enhancement Proposal #1134

[Steve Lime]

I gotta side with Dan on this one, at least until the user meeting. If
we're ready sooner then great, but a 4.6 release around May/June would
be great.

Steve

>>> Daniel Morissette <dmorissette at DMSOLUTIONS.CA> 12/15/04 3:46 PM >>>
Sean Gillies wrote:
>
> Early next year I would like to begin working at embedding
> Python expressions into MapServer.  Here is the proposal:
>
>     http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=1134
>
> If you are interested, add yourself to the issue and gimme
> some feedback.

Sounds like a good idea. Hopefully this can be done in a way that
expressions from other languages can also easily be added down the road.


> I would also like to petition all you developers
> to consider a shorter than usual iteration for the 4.6 release
> so that this new feature can get into use.  I'd like to see a
> 4.6 within 2 months.
>

Um... we've been working hard to get to and stick to a 6 months release
cycle that makes it easier for developers and users to plan their work
around releases and now we'd change that again? In that context would it
still make sense or be possible at all to have a new 4.8 release just
before the June meeting?

I'm not aware of any current large feature plans that couldn't fit in a
quick 4.6 release at the moment, but I don't think we should keep
changing the rules this way. Freezing and stabilizing the software to
release it requires lots of work and we cannot afford to repeat that
every 2-3 months. In addition to that, February-March are the worst
months for us so I am unlikely to be available to help much with a
release at that time.

Of course I'm just another developer and don't get to make the final
call so I'd suggest that you propose a clear plan for a 4.6 release and
see if you can get enough people to buy into it. My preference would be
to stick to a 5-6 months cycle at this point.

Daniel
--
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  Daniel Morissette               dmorissette at dmsolutions.ca
  DM Solutions Group              http://www.dmsolutions.ca/
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