MapServer 5.0.0 release plan ... and release of beta1

[Daniel Morissette]

MapServer Users,

Here are some details about the upcoming MapServer 5.0 release...

MapServer 5.0 release plan:
---------------------------

We have had our v5.0 feature freeze on Monday of this week, which means 
that all new features for version 5.0 are now committed to the SVN 
repository, and for the next few weeks we are in beta mode (i.e. no new 
development, only fixing bugs). We plan to have one beta per week until 
the final release which is planned for the week of September 12, 2007.

A summary of the main features/enhancements in v5.0 is included at the 
end of this email.


MapServer 5.0.0-beta1 release:
------------------------------

Today we are also releasing MapServer 5.0.0-beta1. The source package 
and links to binaries are available at:
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/download/beta


Call for volunteers
-------------------

We would like to invite experienced users to contribute to this release 
by testing the latest beta release and reporting any issue via Trac (see 
the "bugs" link on the MapServer website). Please drop us a note on 
mapserver-dev if you plan on helping with testing so that we have an 
idea of how many testers we have and can better coordinate the efforts.

We have also setup a formal checklist to track which areas of the 
software have been tested for each beta. Please see 
http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/development/release_plans/mapserver_5_0/mapserver_5_0_qa_checklist 
for more details.



Highlight of MapServer 5.0 Features/Enhancements
================================================

Note: For more details on a specific item, please refer to the 
corresponding RFC document at http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/development/rfc

New features:
------------

- MS RFC 19: Added Style and Label attribute binding

- MS RFC 21: Raster Color Correction via color lookup table

- MS RFC 27: Added label priority

- MS RFC 29: Added dynamic charting (pie and bar charts)

- MS RFC 31: New mechanism to load/set objects via URL using mapfile syntax

- MS RFC 32: Added support for map rendering using the AGG library for
   better output quality


Long time issues resolved:
-------------------------

- MS RFC 17: Use dynamic allocation for symbols, layers, classes and styles
   (got rid of the static limit on the number of instances of each in a map)

- MS RFC 24: Improved memory management and garbage collection for MapScript

- MS RFC 26: Terminology cleanup (layer transparency renamed to opacity,
   scale becomes scaledenom, symbol style becomes symbol pattern)

- MS RFC 28: Enhanced the debug/logging mechanism to facilitate
   troubleshooting and tuning applications. Added support for multiple
   debug levels and more control on output location.


... and numerous fixes and enhancements not listed here...