MapServer 5.0 release plan

[Howard Butler]

Daniel,

I think it's awesome that you found someone who wants to pay to fix  
bugs, especially mundane (but important) ones like converting to  
mapogr.c.  Where do these mythical beneficiaries exist and do they  
have more? ;)

My opinion is that we let AGG support hold up the 5.0 release until  
it is workable enough to be out there in the wild.  Premium  
cartographic output is enough of a draw (sorry) for folks coming to  
MapServer that they will be willing to put up with its quirks to get  
it.  I'd also like to see the dust settle on RFCs 19 and 24, because  
IMO a major version release is the one time I think we can get away  
with it.

I like these dates as good targets.  I think to get serious about a  
5.0 release we should start having at least monthly IRC developer  
meetings to prioritize stuff and see where everyone is with their  
developments.

re: #2 Does this happen at the mapserver, GDAL/OGR, or Proj level?
re: #4 Would libxml2 be in the cards for this, or would we continue  
on the current path?
re: #6.  IIRC, the OGR C API doesn't have full support for the  
styling stuff, which was one of the things holding up our migration  
to mapogr.c.  Will there be some changes in the OGR C API as well?

Howard

On Mar 16, 2007, at 4:02 PM, Daniel Morissette wrote:

> Back in the fall when we released MapServer 4.10 we agreed that we  
> would try to release MapServer 5.0 in the first quarter of 2007.   
> We have reached that time, but I don't think we are about ready to  
> release 5.0. Very few of the features listed in the 5.0 release  
> plans are complete, see:
> http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/development/release_plans/mapserver_5_0/
>
> What do we think are realistic feature freeze and release date for  
> MapServer 5.0?
>
> The reason I'm asking is that I just got funding approval for the  
> following feature enhancements for MapServer 5.0:
>
> 1- Redesign of LOG/DEBUG output mechanisms (bugs 709, 1333, 1783)
> 2- Optimize lookup of EPSG codes (bug 1976)
> 3- Integration of Dynamic Charting Capability (bug 1800)
> 4- WMS 1.3 client and server support
> 5- Labelling prioritization (bug 1619)
> 6- Convert mapogr.cpp to use OGR C API (bug 545)
>
> If I want to have time to do things the right way, including RFC,  
> etc, I'd need at least a good 2 months before the feature freeze.  
> That would mean a feature freeze no earlier than mid-May, or more  
> realistically at the end of May, for a final release around mid- 
> July. Since 4.10.0 was released on October 4th last year, a release  
> mid-July would come 9.5 months after the previous one, or 3.5  
> months late on our 6 months release cycle.
>
> If the PSC finds that this is too late then I can always reschedule  
> this work until after 5.0, but I think some of those enhancements  
> would be very welcome in a 5.0 release, that's why I am sending  
> this email, to find out what you'd think of a 5.0 feature freeze at  
> the end of May or later, for a release sometimes in July. It's  
> about time that we start talking about dates for the 5.0 release  
> anyway.
>
> Daniel
> -- 
> Daniel Morissette
> http://www.mapgears.com/
>