MapServer 4.2.4 Release

[Sean Gillies]

MapServer 4.2.4 has been released.  Although the website has
not yet been updated, the download is available from:

   http://cvs.gis.umn.edu/dist/mapserver-4.2.4.tar.gz

So, what makes this version worth downloading and installing?
Easy UNIX/Linux Java mapscript compilation with testable examples,
repaired pixmap symbol transparency for 24-bit output images, and
OWS and SDE bug fixes.

If you intend to use MapServer within long running or multi-
threaded processes, you *must* upgrade.  Many memory leaks have
been plugged, and several potential threading problems have been
found and eliminated.

Here is the top of the change log:

Version 4.2.4 (2004-10-10)
--------------------------

- Protect users from 3 potential sources of threading problems: parsing
   expression strings outside of msLoadMap, evaluating mapserver logical
   expressions, and loading symbol set files outside of msLoadMap (bug
339).

- Various fixes allowing unit tests to run leak free under valgrind on
   i686.  Memory is now properly freed when exiting from common error
   states (bug 927).

- Restored ability to render transparent (indexed or alpha) pixmap
symbols
   on RGB map images, including annotation layers and embedded scalebars.
   This feature remains OFF by default for map layers and is enabled by
   specifying TRANSPARENCY ALPHA (bugs 926, 490).

- New and improved Java mapscript build provided by
unicoletti at prometeo.it,
   and examples contributed by Y.K. Choo (bug 876).

- Fixed bug 863: Output MapContext parameters (SRS and DataURL) in the
order
   required by the spec.

- searchImageCache() in mapgd.c now checks all three style colors before
   using a cached brush image (bug 868).

- Fixed bug 857: Fix msDecodeHTMLEntities to not skip characters after
each
   decoding.

- Fixed bug 834: SE_ROW_ID in SDE not initialized for unregistered SDE
tables

Thanks to all that reported, confirmed, and fixed these issues!

Enjoy,
Sean

--
Sean Gillies
sgillies at frii dot com
http://users.frii.com/sgillies