State of MapServer...

[Caffeinate The World]

may i suggest DocBook for the manual. Then you can
dump it out in different formats: html, ps, text, what
ever.

More information regarding how to work with shape
files and conversion utilities. Atleast have
references to where you can find them. 

Port Mapscript/PHP module to work with PHP4.
Definitely have a better demo site to show off all the
great features. SourceForge is very SLOW at times. If
they UoMN can and is willing to donate some server
space, all the better. Ever try dl-ing from
SourceForge? I usually go for coffee breaks when DL
from SourceForge.


--- Stephen Lime <steve.lime at dnr.state.mn.us> wrote:
> Man, lots of traffic on the list these days and all
> good conversation. I'm all in favor of
> getting more people involved in actual code
> development, but now is not the right time.
> Perhaps with MapServer 4- which is on the horizon.
> As always I/we or whatever will
> solicit input from the user community. The mailing
> list numbers 230+ so clearly something
> is being done right.
> 
> SourceForge - Unless the University can't or won't
> house the project I see no reason
> to move. Being one of 10,000 projects doesn't sound
> appealing. A fast, robust CVS
> server is key and the UMN can provide that.
> Certainly other tools could/should be 
> employed for bug tracking and I'll encourage the UMN
> to get one running. Bugzilla seems
> to be pretty good. Other suggestions are of course
> welcome. A running change log is part
> of CVS.
> 
> The biggest need I see is more detailed examples and
> documentation. Functionality is such
> that most users aren't pushing the software. I think
> the primary reason is that most just aren't
> aware of possiblities (or my current docs suck).
> That was the reason for the original call for
> volunteers. What I propose is to move the
> documentation and demo portions of the main
> mapserver site into CVS with sub-groups of MapServer
> users responsible for updates and
> additions. With the main demo and the test suite
> there is enough to start from, same goes 
> for the docs. It's important to not have only those
> doing coding involved. Often I'm so tied
> to the code I can't anticipate issues that those
> using it can. That's why Perry's demo instructions
> are far better than I could write. The University is
> setting up 2 new mailing lists to direct
> documentation
> and demo development: mapserver-demo and
> mapserver-docs. When those are ready I'll make
> another call for participation.
> 
> I really like Perry's demo "howto" and would like to
> see a bunch of these written (i.e. howto add
> the mapplet applet, howto use projections and so
> on). Works for RedHad anyway.
> 
> What do folks think?
> 
> Steve
> 
> Stephen Lime
> Internet Applications Analyst
> 
> Minnesota DNR
> 500 Lafayette Road
> St. Paul, MN 55155
> 651-297-2937
> 


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