= MapServer History =

This page will act as a sandbox for compiling notes on the history of MapServer, for publishing to the main MapServer website, as well as Wikipedia.

The project was born of necessity and frustration with commercial Web-based mapping offerings available in the mid-1990s. The initial interest was in developing spatially-enabled Web applications and not the software to make that possible.

== 1994 ==

   * initial effort to develop decision support system for recreational users of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northern Minnesota, USA
      * initially basic configuaration to submit web requests to AML routines, rendered with !ArcPlot
      * 30 seconds to render maps
      * licensing limitations
   * UMN awarded with NASA/ForNet funding to support web-based delivery of forestry data
      * partnership between Minnesota DNR and UMN
      * 2 output CGI processes
         * classified imagery output ("imgserv"); CGI process
         * context data output ("mapserv")
      * integration with Java applets
   * initially UNIX/Linux based

== 1995 ==

   * Shapelib released

== 1996 ==
   * user community of 10
   * a few exteral organizations using MapServer
   * 2.0 released as final project deliverable

== 1997 ==
   * most development moved to Minnesota DNR
   * basic raster support added
   * support for Truetype fonts (Freetype)
   * GD used for image generation


== 1998 ==
   * UMN funded by NASA for TerraSIP to deliver land use/land cover data over the Web
   * focused on using multispectral and hyperspectral data
      * functionality eventually provided by GDAL

== 1999 == 
   * UMN makes MapServer open source
   * 3.0 released
   * 3.3 released

== 2000 ==
   * 3.3 released with !MapScript
   * DM Solutions Group investigates possibility of contribution with UMN
   * PHP !MapScript developed
   * Windows support developed
   * 3.4 released

== 2001 ==

== 2002 ==
   * MapServer used as underlying framework for CGDI WMS Client Component (CWC2), later renamed to Chameleon
   * 3.5 released

== 2003 ==
   * 3.6 released
   * 4.0 released

== 2004 ==

== 2005 ==

== 2006 ==
   * initial support for Sensor Observation Service (SOS) to support monitoring stations and data

== 2007 ==
   * 5.0 released
      * support for AGG for improved graphics rendering

== 2008 ==
   * 5.2 released
      * Tile-based output (a la Google Maps)
      * Simplified templating
      * Native Microsoft SQL Server 2008 support