[postgis-devel] Proposal: drop support for libproj < 6.1 in PostGIS 3.3.0

[Jeff McKenna]

On 2022-02-11 9:06 p.m., Greg Troxel wrote:
> 
> Paul Ramsey <pramsey at cleverelephant.ca> writes:
> 
>> This is kind of the place I feel blind. Like what are the extant proj versions at Ubunto 20, 18, 16... ?
>> I'm leery about turning off those old versions, because old proj is
>> still so commonplace. I understand that to some extent we have to
>> drive change, but within reason. There's a maximum amount of pain we
>> want to cause weiged against benefit.
> 
> Not ubuntu but as proj packager for pkgsrc, I got stuck at 6.3.2.  Not
> for a good reason, but moving beyond that gets into dealing with the
> proj CDN and a different format of proj data.  Part of the issue is that
> proj people think it's reasonable to download on the fly and manage
> permissions of who can put downloaded stuff where, and packaging people,
> not so much.  Really I should have dealt with this by now, and I hope to
> soon, but I haven't.
> 
> So that's not really a "requiring 7.1 bad".  But there are structural
> reasons that would make me unsurprised if a fair number of environments
> were still at 6.3.
> 
> 

Very well said Greg.  In terms of packagers (we're the unpaid side of 
FOSS4G software, yet the users depend on us the most) we focus on user 
needs and must balance the coolness of software upgrades with the 
stability.  On the web mapping side on Windows, users are surprisingly 
happy with the speed and simplicity of PROJ 5.2.0 (I've learned a lot 
watching closely and listening to feedback, and learned that what is 
needed at the desktop level is not always needed at the web mapping 
level, and my urge to throw cool stuff like networking and on-demand and 
accuracy isn't always desired by users).

So making that jump, as you said, must be for a good reason, for the 
comfortable user (and therefore the packager).

Do not feel bad about your smart decision to "let the dust settle" and 
calmly remain at 6.3.2 etc.

By the way, I sometimes wish we had a 'safe space' to talk as packagers, 
because we should be able to share and not offend project teams with 
unfortunate facts and reports, as this sharing is like gold to hear from 
other packagers.

So I want to thank-you here for sharing as a fellow packager.

-jeff




-- 
Jeff McKenna
GatewayGeo: Developers of MS4W, MapServer Consulting and Training
co-founder of FOSS4G
http://gatewaygeo.com/