RFC 19: style and label attribute binding...

[Daniel Morissette]

Stephen Woodbridge wrote:
> 
> This is exactly my point, I may have been too subtle on this point.
> 
> This would have a major impact on DM Solutions, Where2GetIt and lots of 
> others. It would be really bad to fracture PHP and SWIG mapscripts any 
> more than they are now, I think we need DM Solutions to weight in on 
> this also.
> 

I agree with Steve and Frank that we should not understimate the impact 
of breaking backwards compatibility in a significant way. This means 
that not only end user apps, but also major framworks such as Chameleon, 
Cartoweb, MapBender, etc will all need to be revisited to be brought in 
sync with the changes. This item binding should have a relatively minor 
impact and doesn't worry me too much. I am mostly worried when I hear 
suggestions of a "major cleanup" for 5.0.

However, I also agree that 5.0 is a good time for the type of changes 
that may break compatibility (like we did at 4.0).


> That said, if we are going to break, then lets really clean it up. This 
> might include (in a separate RFC) more changes to support thread safety, 
> better architecture for .NET and Java support if we need that etc. These 
> are the things that would really justify a major breakage.
> 

I'd agree in theory, but in practice it is not realistic to hope to do a 
major cleanup like this for 5.0 if we want to see it released this year. 
A cleanup would require some time, and would be unlikely to be funded by 
anyone, so the chances of developers being able to put this at the top 
of their priority lists are very low.

Also, if we want a new release before FOSS4G2006, then we will have to 
start thinking about a feature freeze in July, that's only a few weeks 
away and doesn't leave the time for much new stuff if we want a quality 
release.

Daniel
-- 
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/