GDAL/OGR 1.3.1 Released

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks,

I am pleased to announce the release of GDAL/OGR 1.3.1.  This is mostly a
bug fix release, though there are a few new and improved drivers.

Source:
  http://www.gdal.org/dl/gdal-1.3.1.tar.gz
  http://www.gdal.org/dl/gdal131.zip

Docs / Web site:
  http://www.gdal.org/dl/gdal131doc.zip

Test Suite:
  http://www.gdal.org/dl/gdalautotest-1.3.1.tar.gz

The major news with this release is that the "Next Generation" Perl, Python
and Ruby bindings are now considered ready to use, though I'm sure there will
be some additional improvements to them in the coming months.  I would like to
give out a special thank you to Ari Jolma (perl), Charlie Savage (Ruby),
Kevin Ruland (Python + overall NG work) and Howard Butler who have put in a
huge amount of effort on these bindings.  If we can get champions for Java,
C# and PHP that are willing to brave the dark depths of SWIG, I'm sure we can
make good progress on them too.

Best regards,
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent



GDAL 1.3.1 - Overview of Changes
--------------------------------

Next Generation SWIG Wrappers (GDAL and OGR):
 - Python, Perl and Ruby bindings considered to be ready to use.
 - C#, Java, PHP are at best initial prototypes.
 - Added configure options for most NG options.

PCRaster Driver:
 - libcsf is now included as part of GDAL.
 - PCRaster enabled by default on win32.
 - --with-pcraster=internal option now supported on unix (but not yet default)

VSI Virtualization:
 - The "large file API" (VSI*L) has been re-engineered to allow installing
   additional file handlers at runtime.
 - Added "in memory" VSI handler so that now any driver using VSI*L
   functions for data access can operate on in-memory files.
 - PNG, JPEG and GeoTIFF drivers upgraded to work with in-memory support.

Raster Attribute Tables:
 - Implemented new Raster Attribute Tables support.  See the
   GDALRasterAttributeTable class for more information.

Erdas Imagine Overviews:
 - Erdas Imagine driver upgraded to support building internal overviews.
 - Generic overview handler updated to support overviews in Erdas Imagine
   format for any file format.  Set USE_RRD config option to YES to enable.

gdalwarp:
 - Added proper support for "unified source nodata", so the -srcnodata
   switch works well.

RIK Driver:
 - New Swedish format driver implemented by Daniel Wallner.

JPEG Driver:
 - Substantial improvements to EXIF support.

MrSID Driver:
 - Updated with proper JPEG2000 support as JP2MRSID driver, including
   encoding with ESDK.
 - Updated to support MrSID Version 5.x SDKs.

PNG Driver:
 - Fixed serious bugs with 16bit file support.
 - Added NODATA_VALUES to identify RGB sets that indicate a nodata pixel.


OGR 1.3.1 - Overview of Changes
-------------------------------

Reference Counting:
 - OGRSpatialReference and OGRFeatureDefn now honour reference counting
   semantics.
 - Note that, especially for the OGRFeatureDefn, it is now critical that
   all drivers be careful with reference counting.  Any OGR drivers not in
   the core distribution will likely crash if not updated.

ESRI Personal Geodatabase Driver:
 - New driver implemented for ESRI Personal Geodatabase (.mdb) files.
 - Uses ODBC, enabled by default on win32.

ODBC Driver:
 - Updated to support binary fields.
 - Updated to support WKB geometry fields.
 - Updated to support DSN-less connections.

S57 Driver:
 - Added support for Inland Waterways, and Additional Military Layers profiles