RFC 14 out for comment...

[Frank Warmerdam]

Steve Lime wrote:
> Hi all: I posted a new RFC for supporting relative coordinates (primarily for inline features)
> to the mapserver website. Comments would be appreciated. The actual computations
> are trivial to make this work. The issues are more implementation related- hanging a
> new parameter off a shapeObj vs something else and so on...
> 
> I have coded up one solution and the end result is very useful.

Steve,

I like RFC 14 but would like to make a few suggestions:

  o Include the direct url when introducing!

    http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/development/rfc/ms-rfc-14/

  o I would like to see it for WKT inline definitions.

    eg.
       FEATURE
         RELATIVE LR WKT "POINT(-80 -22)"
       END

  o I would like to see a list of the relative positions supported.  In
    map.h I see "enum MS_LABEL_POSITIONS {MS_UL, MS_LR, MS_UR, MS_LL,
    MS_CR, MS_CL, MS_UC, MS_LC, MS_CC, MS_AUTO, MS_XY, MS_FOLLOW};"  I
    assume all of UL, LR, UR, L, CR, CL, UC, LC and CC would be supported?

  o Could we make the field in the shapeObj of type MS_LABEL_POSITIONS, or
    better yet add an MS_SHAPE_POSITIONS enum with just the values that
    apply?

  o I would like to see an explicit definition of how this works in
    mapscript before final voting, and an example works wonders for me!

  o I would like to see a commitment to test suite entries in the RFC.  I
    am happy to commit to adding a test of relative support that includes
    all positions in the msautotest/misc "functional test suite" if you would
    like.  I'll write up a paragraph about that in the RFC if you would like.

    It would also be nice to have testing in the Python unit tests but I'm not
    sure how we would test that it is working.  The python unit tests would
    be a good place to verify that mapscript support is working reasonably
    well, and that saving a map preserves the relativeto settings. I'd be
    willing to address that aspect as well if you would like.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org