using Mapserver for on-the-fly raster data?

[Jeff de La Beaujardiere]

Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> Another approach would be to intercept the WMS requests with a
> script that would take care of extracting desired products in advance
> before turning control over mapserv to satisfy the request.

I was thinking about his approach over lunch. However, it seems that 
once I go down this path I might as well skip calling Mapserver at all 
and simply let my WMS CGI generate the requested image by calling IDL. 
Unless I'm missing something (which is quite possible), I don't see 
where Mapserver provides the ability to control the raster portrayal.

-Jeff DLB