[Dspatial-develop] DSpatial release 0.3.1 and gridmath release 0.1.2

[Patrick v. L. <pat...@te...>]

Hello DSpatial developers,

Version 0.3.1 of the DSpatial kernel was released on Sourceforge today.
This is a maintenance release with no new features, but a truckload of
bug fixes. Most of these bugs came to light during the development of
release 0.1.2 of the gridmath module, also newly available today.

The new gridmath module release 0.1.2 contains a new unit that
implements a fairly extensive array of mathematical functions that
operate on a single raster band. These functions include simple
arithmetic, trigonometry, power and logarithms, and a few support
functions. With this module it is now for the first time possible to
manipulate raster data with DSpatial!

Attention is now shifting back to the kernel where a so-called filtered
data access object is being developed. This filter maintains a defined
region of a raster band and it supports notions such as current pixel
and relative pixel addressing. This filter access will greatly reduce
the complexity of analysis functions that operate on multiple raster
bands, or local functions on a single raster band such as those to be
included in the terra and orbit modules.

Documentation of DSpatial and the gridmath module are still sorely
lacking. Especially needed right now are detailed documents on
programming with the DSpatial kernel and the extension modules, and on
how to develop additional raster drivers. A volunteer who could take
this task on would be greatly appreciated.

A DSpatial news group has just been added on news.gmane.org. The news
group gmane.comp.gis.dspatial.devel is a news mirror of the mailing list
on SourceForge. The news group has been added to lower the effort to
discuss DSpatial issues, using your news reader of choice. More news
groups will be added on GMane when the need arises.

Thanks,
DSpatial development team