[mapserver-users] Fwd: MS4W version 4.0.0 pre-release 'alpha' available

[Jeff McKenna]

On 2016-06-27 10:16 PM, Andy Colson wrote:
> On 06/27/2016 01:41 PM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
>> Forwarding to the MapServer community, to get feedback and testing
>> with PHP 7.  Thanks.  -jeff
>>
>>
>> -------- Forwarded Message --------
>> Subject: Re: [MS4W-Users] version 4.0.0 pre-release 'alpha' available
>> Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2016 12:42:11 -0300
>> From: Jeff McKenna via MS4W-Users <ms4w-users at lists.ms4w.com>
>> Reply-To: ms4w-users at lists.ms4w.com
>> To: ms4w-users at lists.ms4w.com
>> CC: Jeff McKenna <jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com>
>>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> Another alpha build (alpha3) is now available on the download server
>> (http://www.ms4w.com/release/experimental/), which contains PHP 7.0.8
>> as well as its extensions.  Thank you to those who had filed tickets
>> for specific PHP extensions (at http://ms4w.com/trac).  Note that most
>> of the extensions are loaded by default in PHP, so the best way to
>> check what extensions are included is through a phpinfo() call (there
>> is a 'phpinfo.php' file already included in /ms4w/apache/htdocs/
>> Technical users might want to check the configure command used when I
>> compiled this PHP, which is shown in the phpinfo() results (or here is
>> a screenshot, see the 5th row in the table:
>> http://pasteboard.co/1ZYfzJyX.png).  Don't be afraid to request
>> additional extensions through the MS4W tracker: http://ms4w.com/trac -
>> the time is now for feedback and requests.
>>
>> PHP 7 is of course a big improvement (and I've invested almost 2
>> months of my time to rebuild the entire MS4W stack for PHP 7, which
>> requires the latest compiler).  You can check online for performance
>> improvements of PHP 7, most estimate 3X speed improvements with this
>> version (wow). An important note of course is that PHPMapScript is not
>> yet included in the alpha, as it definitely requires additional
>> development time and effort; so please please contact me directly if
>> your organization can help fund this effort.
>>
>> Thank you for using MS4W.
>>
>> -jeff
>>
>> -------
>>
>> Please check the 'HISTORY.txt' file in the alpha, for a list of
>> changes in your alpha build.
>>
>> To use these alpha builds, be sure to install the 'Microsoft Visual
>> C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 2
>> ' package first (vc_redist.x86.exe):
>> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51682  An
>> important note: because of this new compiler, old systems running
>> Windows XP (and possible Windows Server 2003) can no longer be
>> supported.  But of course if need be, I can provide custom builds with
>> the old compiler for those organizations requiring that.
>>
>> I realize that so many organizations (many on this mailing list) rely
>> heavily on MS4W, so please contact me directly to help support its
>> development with funding.  It is very important.
>>
>> Below is a list of recent changes.  If you want the latest stable MS4W
>> release, please download last month's MS4W 3.1.4 release (from
>> http://ms4w.com/).
>>
>> *************************************
>>
>> 2016-06-27 Gateway Geomatics
>>    * ms4w version 4.0.0-alpha3 created. Notable changes are:
>>
>>           - upgraded PHP to 7.0.8 with Visual Studio 2015 compiler
>> (trac ticket 5)
>>           - built additional PHP extensions with Visual Studio 2015
>> compiler:
>>             pdo_mysql (trac ticket 52), pdo_oci, oci8, bzip2
>>           - rebuilt all GDAL plugins and bindings
>>           - moved CSharp, Java, Python bindings into folder
>> /ms4w/gdalbindings/
>>           - updated script /gdalbindings/python/test-cgi-mapscript.py
>> for Python 3
>>
>>           *PHPMapScript will not work in this version, needs dev work
>> + funding
>>
>
>
> Forgive my dumbness.  But.  Whats the point of PHP if PHPMapScript
> doesnt work?
>
> Even if it did work, what's the point when 90% of the time spent is
> inside mapserver, of which 50% of that time is spent reading
> .shp/PostGIS/.tiff/etc.
>
> I'm all for PHP 7, please don't misunderstand, but this:
>
>> PHP 7 is of course a big improvement (and I've invested almost 2 months
>
> Makes it sound like my gis hosting is going to be 3x faster.  But its
> not.  Right?
>

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your positive feedback on all this work.

Alpha releases are for the MS4W community to test in advance - many MS4W 
applications are based on PHP (GeoMOOSE, Mapbender, p.mapper, ...) so 
these builds help those developers and users prepare for PHP 7 in their 
sites.

Talk soon,

-jeff


-- 
Jeff McKenna
MapServer Consulting and Training Services
http://www.gatewaygeomatics.com/