Big changes, starting with the Graphics Libs. Don’t worry, they’re still compatible with the other installers.

First up: I’ve removed debug options from all packages where it was the default. This results in smaller, and possibly slightly faster, binaries. In most cases this was a 50% reduction in size, though some were already without debug options.

Next: ImageMagick added to the Graphics Libs package. This made up for the decrease in size from de-debugging. For now it’s just the basics as supported by the other libraries in the package – there are some other graphic formats it can support that I need to look into.

For the future: The Tiger package is now universal – that is, it’s ready for the Intel Macs coming next year. Don’t worry, the ‘universal’ of course means it works on both the current PPC Macs and the upcoming Intel Macs. (I don’t have any way of testing until the Intel Macs are ready and I get one, but it should work…)

I’m working on the GIS Libs and Postgres now. Look for optimized universal binaries by the end of the year.

A bunch of updates today.

Graphics Libs: Added that JasPer speedup patch. JPEG2000 processing times cut in half! Also added the JasPer OpenGL viewer jiv, for Tiger only – there are some build issues with Panther’s OpenGL.

GIS Libs: Oops, the Tiger installer for v1.6 included the old files (I forgot to synchronize the install files), but the cleanup script still removed the last GDAL library, thus breaking GDAL. This has been fixed. The non-working ECW is also there. Bumped the version to 1.7 to add some E00 conversion tools. These are used by GRASS for v.in.e00.

Postgres updated to 8.0.4 and PostGIS updated to 1.0.4. I saw the recent Postgres 8.1 release. I’ll be looking at that next, it doesn’t look like it’ll cause problems. Some nice speedups for large databases.

PHP updated to 4.4.1. I also fixed a problem installing php.ini for the CGI version.

Well, looks like the ECW JP2 support for the GIS Libs doesn’t work yet. It isn’t a final release yet, so it’s not unexpected.

On a brighter note, I found a patch for JasPer to speed that up – encode times for JasPer JPEG2000 reduced by half! I’ll have that in the next update. (Maybe ECW will be fixed by then also ^_^)

What with getting distracted and trying to figure out some build issues, this update took a while. So, here you go:

Graphics Libs 1.6. TIFF updated to 3.7.4. GIF updated to 4.1.4. Utils for PDFlib added (I noticed that these were not installed by default for some reason). For the Panther package, I also aded Sqlite – Apple includes it in Tiger.

GIS Libs 1.6. CFITSIO updated to 3b4. ECW/JP2 added, for Tiger only for now, there’s a build issue with Panther I need to work on (don’t get your hopes up, though). GDAL/OGR updated to 1.3.1. Support added for PCRaster, Sqlite, ODBC, ESRI Personal DB and ECW (Tiger only). ODBC support is handled by the Apple-supplied iODBC, not unixODBC. GRASS support is handled as a GDAL plugin now, this avoids the circular dependency hell between GRASS and GDAL that occassionally gives me trouble.

Fixed a linking error in GD for the Xpm library for the Panther version of the Graphics Libs.

This problem would cause anything that used GD to fail, including MapServer and PHP. On Panther only, the Tiger libraries are linked correctly. So, for now there are 2 current version numbers, 1.5.1 for Tiger and 1.5.2 for Panther.

In discovering this problem when trying to update the server at work (Panther), I found that my PHP won’t work on Mac OS X Server without a bit of fiddling with httpd.conf. I need to work on that. Email me if you want details for enabling my PHP on MOSX Server, I’m too lazy right now to write something up.

I fixed a GRASS linking problem in GISLibs that would cause GDAL to fail, whatever you tried to do.

Also, I figured out my GRASS issue on Panther, so I hope to have a GRASS installer real soon.

More installer updates. GraphicsLibs: updated Xerces 2.7, FreeType 2.1.10, PDFlib Lite 6.0.2. GISlibs: updated GEOS 2.1.4, CFITSIO 3.003b, GRASS libs 6.0.1, GDAL 1.3.0; added HDF5.

Oops, there were a couple problems that caused the MapServer installers to fail. Should be fixed now. Nice to know someone out there is paying attention.

Hooray! Feeling better, but the sore throat-turned-cold still lingers, and now the fall allergy season approaches.

Finally, PHP is now available as both an Apache module and CGI. A crude utility to switch between each is included. MapServer has been updated to 4.6.1. And includes PHP-MapScript for each of the varieties of PHP.

I decided to go with a single installer each for Panther and Tiger for PHP, rather than a mess of individual installers for each variety of PHP. This has doubled the download file size, sorry.

Phwew. Hopefully no MAJOR changes for a while. I have some version updates and feature additions piling up for a few things.

I’m considering a GRASS installer, but I’ve run into a snag in the Panther version. I may start with a just a Tiger GRASS installer. This GRASS would be a barebones GRASS like you would get from my build instructions, no or minimal Mac OS X additions like in Lorenzo’s GRASS distribution.

Updated build instructions (about all I could handle today). A few new versions – tiff, gdal, php, grass. Changed everything to bash shell.

Sore throat moved up to my head and I’ve had a cold all week. And I’ve been working on how to enable php-apache/php-cgi switching without having users muck about in the Terminal. So PHP-CGI stuff still delayed. Installers are otherwise ready.