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

[Jeff McKenna]

On 2016-06-28 10:14 AM, Andy Colson wrote:
> On 06/28/2016 06:09 AM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
>> 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
>>
>>
>
> Wow.  I was a bit dickish, huh.  Sorry about that.  Re-reading my post I
> realize I was a bit hostile.
>
> Perhaps I could re-ask and we could start over?  I am curious about
> performance.
>
> PHP 7 is faster, yes, but an average gis site spends more time inside
> mapserver code than in php code, I assume, so the new performance
> benefits of PHP 7 aren't going to speed up my site.  Is this assumption
> correct?  Or might I see faster maps?
>
> Sorry again, Jeff.

Thanks Andy, I think we both mean well.

It is true that at the moment I can't confirm yet all these sites with 
their "benchmarks" stating such a big performance improvement from PHP 
7.  I also can't confirm how this will impact map drawing speeds through 
PHPMapScript.  I guess the point of these alphas and my work is to push 
this along, help PHP 7 + MapServer community along.  This was a big 
hurdle for me (PHP 7 required the latest Visual Studio compiler, and if 
you have ever tried to compile on Windows, that means the whole 
MapServer and GDAL stack, and don't forget I also compile the whole 
Apache+modules and PHP+extensions stack on Windows, which is quite a 
massive effort - even the PHP dev team is aware of my MS4W work now on 
Windows).

This was a big first step, and I agree it could be taken as sort of a 
tease ("well ok, but where is PHPMapScript?"), ha, of course, good 
point.  I hope this helps advance things, help things move along, as 
(when I first mentioned MapServer + PHP 7 back in December last year) I 
really feel that this is very important for the MapServer community, but 
spoken of very little.

I did get a response back from the Mapbender dev team already, and I'm 
sure other dev teams will be working towards PHP 7 and keeping this 
momentum going.

-jeff

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