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

[Andy Colson]

On 06/28/2016 08:27 AM, Jeff McKenna wrote:
> 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
>


My current site is written in Perl, but if PHP 7 can give me a 2x or 3x boost, I'd re-write it in a second.  I'll be interested to hear about this going forward.

Thanks again,

-Andy