Mapserver 5 - Terminology clean-up

[Havard Tveite]

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Havard Tveite wrote:
>> 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).
> 
> Håvard,
> 
> I agree on the transparency/opacity fix.

Good!

> For the scale change, are you suggesting that MAXSCALE and MINSCALE
> would continue to work as they do now, but we would deprecate those 
> keywords
> in favor of MAXSCALE_DENOMINATOR and MINSCALE_DENOMINATOR keywords?  And
> the new keywords would be the only ones documented?
> 
> While I'm not exactly excited about the idea, I would be willing to support
> it in return for your agreement to review and improve reference and howto
> information on how the min/max scale stuff work. :-)  It is a constant 
> source
> of confusion.

I think the solution Steve suggests is better than my proposal,
and I hope that you can accept Steve's proposal too.
If there is interest, I can take a closer look at the
documentation of maxscale, minscale, symbolscale, ...
Please give me some instructions on how you think it is best to
proceed.

-- 
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