agg changes

[Stephen Woodbridge]

Paul Spencer wrote:
> Steve,
> 
> I'd like to suggest defering cartographic enhancements (by which I mean 
> additional keywords in the map file to specify more advanced 
> cartographic options) until post 5.0.  I think, since you are moving 
> from 4.x to 5.x and *can* make some changes that are not necessarily 
> backwards compatible, that you should consider removing things from the 
> mapfile at this point that don't work or won't be supported in order to 
> establish a minimum baseline which the 5.x series can build on by adding 
> new features without having to make an incompatible change in the next 
> version.  Essentially, I am advocating stripping out as much as 
> possible/practical, and then adding new stuff post 5.0.
> 
> Looking forward to 5.2, I think it would be really beneficial to start a 
> dialog with the user community on cartographic needs and try to 
> establish a set of requirements that can be built towards in the 5.x 
> series.  I know that MapGuide has implemented point and line support for 
> a massive USGS cartographic standard and has some very impressive demos 
> of the new cartography.  There is also a large document describing the 
> cartographic needs of the Canadian national dataset folks.  There are 
> probably other 'standards' out there too.
> 
> AGG has given mapserver an excellent foundation to build on for premium 
> cartography, and I think it would be a mistake to leave stuff in 
> mapserver 5.0 that we may regret post 5.0.

Paul,

I think this is an excellent idea. I like the idea of better 
cartographic symbol support and support the USGS and Canadian standards.

While I would like to purge stuff that we know we are going to be 
moving, it is too late in the release cycle (IMHO) to do that now. I do 
think we can make a BIG note in the release to say that we plan to make 
additional changes in this area in the 5.2 timeframe and tell people to 
plan for this additional change post 5.0.

-Steve