[mapserver-dev] new project: node.js extension for mapserver

[Paul Spencer]

Hi, just wanted to let anyone that is interested know that I have started a project at https://github.com/pagameba/node-mapserver to expose mapserver's C API in node.js (a javascript scripting engine based on Google's v8 javascript engine).  I'm not very far along but I have managed to get some things working, including drawing a map and exposing various properties of map and layer objects to javascript.  There is still lots to do but the basic structure of the code is more or less there and a lot of remaining work will be deciding on the actual API, semantics of the API, and copy/paste code to flush out the implementation.

Providing a mapserver extension for node.js is of interest to me because it opens up the possibility to build some very high performance web services.  The evented I/O system in node.js is something I have experimented with recently and I think it has a lot of possibilities for helping to build high performance web mapping services.

If you are interested in participating in the development directly, contributing to discussions about the API that is being exposed, building node.js applications on top of it, helping with documentation or tests, or just because its geekily (?) cool that would be great!  

I don't want to flood the mapserver-dev mailing list with  ongoing traffic specifically about this project so email me directly or participate through issues and the wiki on github until we can judge the level of interest - if it is sufficient, I can set up a google group or something.

Cheers

Paul

PS a shoutout to hobu and vhn for helping me understand some basic C and C++ things on IRC - thanks!

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   Paul Spencer
   Chief Technology Officer
   DM Solutions Group Inc
   http://research.dmsolutions.ca/