MapServer Report 2007

Project Name = MapServer
 * Period covered by report: Jan-Dec 2007
 * Contact name: Steve Lime

Key Accomplishments

 * Transformed the MapServer Technical Steering Committee (TSC) into the MapServer Project Steering Committee (PSC) (see RFC-23)
 * Added four new members to the PSC
 * Three maintenance releases of MapServer 4.10
 * Migrated significant portions of MapServer project infrastructure, specifically CVS and Bugzilla, from the University of Minnesota to OSGeo infrastructure (SVN and Trac) in April 2007
 * Implemented a buildbot
 * Released MapServer 5.0 in early September 2007 closing more than 200 tickets. Key features include:
 * Support for the AGG rendering engine
 * Label prioritization control
 * Style and label attribute binding
 * Dynamic charting capabilities
 * Raster color correction via color lookup table
 * Dynamic allocation for most statically allocated elements (e.g. layers, classes and styles)
 * Improved memory management and garbage collection for MapScript
 * Enhanced debug/logging capabilies

Areas for Improvement

 * OSGeo incubation process was slow, primarily limited to infrastructure migration from UMN to OSGeo.
 * Like most projects, keeping documentation up-to-date with development remains a challenge.
 * There was little or no time for collaboration with other similar (e.g. MapNik, GeoServer, MapGuide) projects although I guess this is only natural given the other demands of working on a project.
 * The MapServer development team did a poor job representing the new release of MapServer (5.0) at the FOSS4G conference in Victoria.

Opportunities to Help

 * list areas that could use some help from members and readers of the report

Outlook for 2008

 * this is the motivational part that is meant to inspire readers to keep their eyes open for great stuff in 2008 :)