Version 3.217 available.

[Stephen Lime]

Brent et al. So many options these days I forget to mention them. The legend
options have always been there. There others are relatively new, or brand new.
ANGLE specifies a text rotation angle (0-360). It does work, but it's not automatically
computed and offets from markers aren't quite right. Still working on it. The
PATIALS keywords tells the labeling routine to make sure labels don't run off the
edge of a map. Values are on or off with default being on. Available only with cached
labels and no overlap.

Item based symbol and text parameters are a good idea. Versions earlier than 3.2
supported reading symbol, color and size from dbf files. The only ones that make
sense to me anymore are symbol size, text size and angle. I'll look into adding that.
Only drag is the speed loss you must endure with all those lookups.

Other comments?

Steve

Stephen Lime
Internet Applications Analyst
MIS Bureau - MN DNR

(651) 297-2937
steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us

>>> "Brent Fraser" <bfraser at digitalscience.com> 06/10 3:18 PM >>>
Steve,

  I downloaded and compiled 3.217.  Looks Great!
I noticed you've added some keywords in the map file
syntax (although I guess they could have been there in
previous versions):

LABEL
    ANGLE
    PARTIALS

LEGEND:
    KEYSIZE
    KEYSPACING


And now for another request...

  I've been pursuing labeling with shapefiles for a while now,
with the goal of making a cartographically pleasing map.
As you know, shapefiles have no inherent text label object,
the software used to view the shapefile must somehow
use the geometry in the shp portion for the postion and
possibly the rotation, and get the size and other text
parameters from somewhere else.  OK for GIS, but not
good for mapping.

And its really frustrating when the original CAD files have
the text carefully placed, sized and rotated!  ArcView will
honour the size and rotation when reading CAD files (it has
CAD file support), but doesn't do a good job of saving that
information with the text value.  But there are other ways to
convert CAD to shape....

Anyways,  I'd like to promote (and have mapserv support) a
shapefile convention of using DBF fields for the ANGLE and
SIZE (and of course the TEXT value) text attributes.  This
would enable individual text strings to have their own size
and rotation, and get pretty close to a great looking map.

Your thoughts?

Thanks,
Brent




----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Lime <steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us>
To: <mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 1999 10:07 AM
Subject: Version 3.217 available.


> Greetings: MapServer version 3.217 is available at the MapServer homepage.
> Besides fixing several bugs found in porting to NT it introduces the
following
> features:
>
>   - Label buffering. You can know specify a buffer distance (in pixels)
for leaving
>     space around labels. This can greatly enhance map readability. (Note:
this
>     option only works with horizontal text at this point)
>
>   - One-to-many joins. Joins have been reworked and are now a separate
object
>     within a query object. One-to-one and one-to-many joins are supported.
>
>   - Polygon labeling. Polygon label points are now gauranteed to fall
within the
>     polygon. Previously certain polygons may have had labels fall outsite
polygon
>     or within islands. This has been fixed. If the polygon centroid does
not fall in
>     the polygon then an alternative method is used. The label point will
be in the
>     polygon, but text may still overlap other features.
>
> As always, please let me know of problems, questions or whatever. Thanks.
>
> Steve
>
> Stephen Lime
> Internet Applications Analyst
> MIS Bureau - MN DNR
>
> (651) 297-2937
> steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us 
>
>