[mapserver-dev] Re: 6.0 backwards compatibility

[thomas bonfort]

Christy,
Supporting those keywords on STYLES and SYMBOLS makes us jump through
hoops to try and support it consistently throughout the codebase. I
understand the need you have, and would hope that someone comes up
with funding for real style inheritance in mapserver.
Until then, using gap/pattern on a symbol is conceptually incorrect,
as a SYMBOL is just the reference to a marker type, and it is the
STYLE that references it that is used to determine how it should be
styled for each feature. I agree that the previous version of
mapserver did not clearly make the distinction between the two
concepts, but that derived due to the limitations of the GD renderer
with respect to advanced symbology.

As the mapfiles have to be updated anyhow in 6.0 due to other
backwards-compatibility breaking changes, now would seem the good time
to update them for those keywords too, rather than forcing another
change in 7.0.

regards,

Thomas

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 16:44, Christy Nieman <cnieman at dmsolutions.ca> wrote:
> I just wanted to put in my $0.02 on this.
>
> I'm a little worried that removing parameters like these from the symbol
> file will make large and complex mapfiles more difficult to manage without
> some sort of named style inheritance (which I don't think exists yet?).  I
> have many symbols for line styles that I reuse throughout a mapfile and
> having to change gap values, line caps and/or patterns for each class that
> uses the style will make management of the mapfiles a lot more involved.
>
> Christy
>
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