Release 0.2.4a

About:

Mapnik is a toolkit for developing GIS applications. At the core isa C++ shared library providing algorithms/patterns for spatial dataaccess and visualization. A key project goal is to provide the bestpossible high-quality cartographic output whithout compromising performance. Mapnik is fast and easy to integrate with other frameworks. If you like coding in Python,there are boost.python bindings and you can start developingweb-mapping applications with your favourite framework right away (justconsider using django :).

Changes:

This release adds serialization support for map definition objects(Text,XML,binary), alpha blending for symbols, some performance andportability improvements. Several bugs/features were corrected,including the bug in the shape datasource that prevented attributesbeing read for point/pointz/pointm geometries.

Future directions:

As always, there are lots of things in the pipeline. Mapnik is almostready to run on win32 and mac. In the next few days I'll be addingsupport for pattern lines, fills, gradients etc. I've also started longoverdue work on text rendering. Stay tuned!

The screenshots below show a simple Qt4application which will eventually make its way into mapnik's sourcetree. It is a good example of how to add mapping capability to existingGUI frameworks. It really takes an afternoon to code a GIS viewer withMapnik C++.