GDAL/OGR Annual Report 2007

• Period covered by report: Jan-Dec 2007
• Contact name: Frank Warmerdam

Key Accomplishments

• GDAL/OGR 1.5.0 Release
  • Over 20 new file format drivers added.
  • Five new feature RFCs implemented
• GDAL/OGR 1.4.0 Release
• GDAL/OGR 1.4.1, 1.4.2, 1.4.3, and 1.4.4 stable branch releases
  • The 1.4.x series represents the first time the project maintained a stable branch from which bug fix releases could be issued.
  • The 1.4.x series included nearly 200 bug fixes
• GDAL/OGR 1.4.0 Release
  • Six new drivers
  • Many bug fixes and new features
• $32500 USD in funds collected from nine sponsors - thanks to Analytical Graphics/AGI (Gold), i-cubed, Cadcorp, Safe Software, SRC, ACT, Waypoint and INGRES.
• Mateusz Loskot was contracted using project sponsorship funds
• Added Tamas Szekeres and Even Rouault to the project steering committee
• Added 12 new Commiters
• Migrated the mailing lists, web site and bug tracking to OSGeo
• A one day sprint/hack-a-thon at FOSS4G, including distribution of "Team GDAL" t-shirts.
• Three Google Summer of Code student projects.

Areas for Improvement

• The 1.4.3 release included ABI (application binary interface) breakage and had to be retracted. Better review and testing mechanisms are needed to avoid breaking our ABI stability guarantees.
• While substantial progress was made over the year, the project still struggles with many old bug reports that have not been addressed.
• Additional outreach to projects and products using GDAL is required to ensure their needs are being met.
• Improve our provision of "standard binaries" for at least Win32, Linux and MacOS X. The OSGeo4W effort may be helpful in this regard for Win32.
• Broaden the coverage of the test suite (more formats, more special cases)

Opportunities to Help

Outlook for 2008

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