Mapserver 5 - Terminology clean-up

[Havard Tveite]

Neat solution, Steve.  I would be very happy with this
change!  Your proposal is much better than mine.

Regards,

Håvard

Steve Lime wrote:
> Even MAXSCALE_DEMOMINATOR is not truely correct, it really should be
> MAXREPRESENTATIVEFRACTION_DENOMINATOR. IMHO Scale (as a number) 
> in itself has  been confusing with web mapping from the begining given that it 
> is never correct and is used only for relative decision making or scaling. Rather
> than changing keywords and futher bloating the language I'd almost rather
> support an alternative method of setting scale, e.g.:
> 
> MINSCALE 1:100000
> 
> That would be easy to do when parsing a mapfile, although a bit more problematic
> for MapScript. The old method and new method would both work. Internally we'd
> still store the value as a double.
> 
> Steve
> 
>>>> Havard Tveite <havard.tveite at umb.no> 10/24/2006 4:27:54 AM >>>
> Steve Lime wrote:
>> I agree on 2) since it's somewhat lightly used, and your suggestion makes a lot of sense. However, 1) has been around so long and is so in-grained that it would likely cause more problems than it would solve. Just my opinion.
> 
> It is my perception that Mapserver is using sound
> terminology throughout.  That is why I think it is
> important to fix the very few errors that are present.
> I would not bother about this if Mapserver had not been
> so well made and well documented as it is.
> I am exposing my students to Mapserver, and I do not want
> its terminology to be a bad example and a source of
> confusion.
> 
> 1) I am very glad you agree on the TRANSPARENCY / OPACITY
>     suggestion.
> 
> 2) I do not think that the "has been around for so long..."
>     argument is good enough to stop us from correcting
>     terminology.
>     I presume that all map literates will have problems the
>     first time they try to use MAXSCALE - MINSCALE.
>     I do not think this is what we want.
>     AND - by preserving the old as a prefix for the new, we
>     do not have to break backwards compatibility.
>     The new keywords will be long.  Perhaps they should be
>     truncated a bit (MAXSCALE_DENOM / MINSCALE_DENOM)?
> 
> 
> I hope this is not "end of discussion", as I would very
> much like to hear the opinion of others (I hope you are
> not totally indifferent).
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Håvard
> 
>> Steve
>>
>>>>> Havard Tveite <havard.tveite at UMB.NO> 10/20/06 8:32 AM >>>
>> Dear mapserver developers,
>>
>> When moving to a new major version, one should take the
>> opportunity to do some cleaning up of the terminology
>> used in Mapserver.
>>
>> I have found two serious terminology "lapses" in
>> Mapserver.  There may be more.
>>
>> 1) MAXSCALE / MINSCALE (LABELMAXSCALE / LABELMINSCALE
>>
>>     1:100000 is a smaller scale than 1:1000!
>>     In Mapserver, however, MAXSCALE/MINSCALE terminology,
>>     1:100000 is a larger scale than 1:1000.
>>
>>     Proposed remedy:
>>     Change MAXSCALE / MINSCALE to
>>     MAXSCALE_DENOMINATOR / MINSCALE_DENOMINATOR
>>     (the same should be done for LABELMAXSCALE/LABELMINSCALE)
>>
>>     By keeping the old keyword as a suffix of the new, old
>>     map files could still parse (truncation flexibility).
>>     I have previously comment on this on
>>     http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/docs/reference/mapfile/layer (2005-07-19 04:17
>>
>> 2) TRANSPARENCY (layer)
>>     This keyword has the opposite meaning of what one would
>>     expect.
>>     I site from the documentation:
>>     "TRANSPARENCY [integer|alpha]
>>     ... Although this parameter is named "transparency", the
>>     integer values actually parameterize layer opacity. A value
>>     of 100 is opaque and 0 is fully transparent."
>>
>>     Proposed change:
>>     Introduce a new keyword OPACITY and "mark" the TRANSPARENCY
>>     keyword as deprecated (with a link to OPACITY).
>>     Old map files could still parse by keeping TRANSPARENCY as an
>>     "alias" for OPACITY.
>>
>>
>> By the way... Thank you for your tremendous effort in making
>> Mapserver the excellent peace of web mapping software it is
> ------------------------> piece!!!
>> today!!
>>
> 

-- 
Håvard Tveite
Department of Mathematical Sciences and Technology, UMB
Drøbakveien 14, POBox 5003, N-1432 Ås, NORWAY
Phone: +47 64965483 Fax: +47 64965401 http://www.umb.no/imt