[Proj] PROJ 5.0.0RC1 Released

[Kristian Evers]

All,

I have prepared the first release candidate of PROJ 5.0.0. See the release notes below. Since this release brings many substantial changes I expect that we will be going through a number of RCs before the final release is ready. We are aiming for a March 1st final release.

Please test the release candidate where ever you depend on it and report back your findings.

Download it here:

http://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-5.0.0RC1.tar.gz  (http://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-5.0.0RC1.tar.gz.md5)
http://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-5.0.0RC1.zip       (http://download.osgeo.org/proj/proj-5.0.0RC1.zip.md5)


/Kristian


5.0.0 Release Notes
-------------------

This version of PROJ introduces some significant extensions and
improvements to (primarily) the geodetic functionality of the system.

The main driver for introducing the new features is the emergence of
dynamic reference frames, the increasing use of high accuracy GNNS,
and the related growing demand for accurate coordinate
transformations.  While older versions of PROJ included some geodetic
functionality, the new framework lays the foundation for turning PROJ
into a generic geospatial coordinate transformation engine.

The core of the library is still the well established projection code.
The new functionality is primarily exposed in a new programming
interface and a new command line utility, "cct" (for "Coordinate
Conversion and Transformation").  The old programming interface is
still available and can - to some extent - use the new geodetic
transformation features.

The internal architecture has also seen many changes and much
improvement.  So far, these improvements respect the existing
programming interface. But the process has revealed a need to simplify
and reduce the code base, in order to support sustained active
development.

!!!
!!! Therefore we have scheduled regular releases over the coming years
!!! which will gradually remove the old programming interface.
!!!
!!! This will cause breaking changes with the next two major version
!!! releases, which will affect all projects that depend on PROJ
!!! (cf. section "deprecations" below).
!!!

The decision to break the existing API has not been easy, but has
ultimately been deemed necessary to ensure the long term survival of
the project. Not only by improving the maintainability immensely, but
also by extending the potential user (and hence developer) community.

The end goal is to deliver a generic coordinate transformation
software package with a clean and concise code base appealing to
both users and developers.


VERSIONING AND NAMING
---------------------

For the first time in more than 25 years the major version number of
the software is changed. The decision to do this is based on the many
new features and new API. While backwards compatibility remains -
except in a few rare corner cases - the addition of a new and improved
programming interface warrants a new major release.

The new major version number unfortunately leaves the project in a bit
of a conundrum regarding the name. For the majority of the life-time
of the product it has been known as PROJ.4, but since we have now
reached version 5 the name is no longer aligned with the version
number.

Hence we have decided to decouple the name from the version number and
from this version and onwards the product will simply be called PROJ.

In recognition of the history of the software we are keeping PROJ.4 as
the *name of the organizing project*. The same project team also
produces the datum-grid package.

In summary:

o The PROJ.4 project provides the product PROJ, which is now at
  version 5.0.0.

o The foundational component of PROJ is the library libproj.

o Other PROJ components include the application proj, which provides
  a command line interface to libproj.

o The PROJ.4 project also distributes the datum-grid package,
  which at the time of writing is at version 1.6.0.


UPDATES
-------

o Introduced new API in proj.h.
   - The new API is orthogonal to the existing proj_api.h API and the
     internally used projects.h API.
   - The new API adds the ability to transform spatiotemporal (4D)
     coordinates.
   - Functions in the new API use the "proj_" namespace.
   - Data types in the new API use the "PJ_" namespace, with a few
     historic exceptions such as XY, XYZ, LP and LPZ.

o Introduced the concept of "transformation pipelines" that makes it
   possible to do complex geodetic transformations of spatiotemporal
   coordinates by daisy chaining simple coordinate operations.

o Introduced cct, the Coordinate Conversion and Transformation
   application.

o Introduced gie, the Geospatial Integrity Investigation Environment.
   - Selftest invoked by -C flag in proj has been removed
   - Ported approx. 1300 built-in selftests to gie format
   - Ported approx. 1000 tests from the gigs test framework
   - Added approx. 200 new tests

o Adopted terminology from the OGC/ISO-19100 geospatial standards
   series. Key definitions are:
   - At the most generic level, a *coordinate operation* is a change
     of coordinates, based on a one-to-one relationship, from one
     coordinate reference system to another.
   - A *transformation* is a coordinate operation in which the two
     coordinate reference systems are based on different datums, e.g.
     a change from a global reference frame to a regional frame.
   - A *conversion* is a coordinate operation in which both
     coordinate reference systems are based on the same datum,
     e.g. change of units of coordinates.
   - A *projection* is a coordinate conversion from an ellipsoidal
     coordinate system to a plane. Although projections are simply
     conversions according to the standard, they are treated as
     separate entities in PROJ as they make up the vast majority
     of operations in the library.

o New operations:
   - The pipeline operator (pipeline)
   - Transformations:
     + Helmert transform (helmert)
     + Horner real and complex polynomial evaluation (horner)
     + Horizontal gridshift (hgridshift)
     + Vertical gridshift (vgridshift)
     + Molodensky transform (molodensky)
     + Kinematic gridshift with deformation model (deformation)
   - Conversions:
     + Unit conversion (unitconvert)
     + Axis swap (axisswap)
   - Projections:
     + Central Conic projection (ccon)

o Significant documentation updates, including
   - Overhaul of the structure of the documentation
   - A better introduction to the use of PROJ
   - A complete reference to the new proj.h API
   - a complete rewrite of the section on geodesic calculations
   - Figures for all projections

o New "free format" option for operation definitions, which
   permits separating tokens by whitespace when specifying key/value-
   pairs, e.g. "proj = merc lat_0 = 45".

o Added metadata to init-files that can be read with the
   proj_init_info() function in the new proj.h API.

o Added ITRF2000, ITRF2008 and ITRF2014 init-files with ITRF
   transformation parameters, including plate motion model
   parameters.

o Added ellipsoid parameters for GSK2011, PZ90 and "danish". The
   latter is similar to the already supported andrae ellipsoid,
   but has a slightly different semimajor axis.

o Added Copenhagen prime meridian.

o Updated EPSG database to version 9.2.0.

o Geodesic library updated to version 1.49.1-c.

o Support for analytical partial derivatives has been removed.

o Improved performance in Winkel Tripel and Aitoff.

o Introduced pj_has_inverse() function to proj_api.h. Checks if an
   operation has an inverse. Use this instead of checking whether
   P->inv exists, since that can no longer be relied on.

o Removed support for Windows CE.

o Removed the VB6 COM interface.

BUG FIXES
------------

All bug fix numbers refer to issues indexed at
https://github.com/OSGeo/proj.4/issues/

o Fixed incorrect convergence calculation in Lambert Conformal
   Conic. #16.

o Handle ellipsoid parameters correctly when using +nadgrids=@null.
   #22.

o Return correct latitude when using negative northings in
   Transverse Mercator (tmerc). #138.

o Return correct result at origin in inverse Mod. Stererographic
   of Alaska. #161.

o Return correct result at origin in inverse Mod. Stererographic
   of 48 U.S. #162.

o Return correct result at origin in inverse Mod. Stererographic
   of 50 U.S. #163.

o Return correct result at origin in inverse Lee Oblated
   Stereographic. #164.

o Return correct result at origin in inverse Miller Oblated
   Stereographic. #164.

o Fixed scaling and wrap-around issues in Oblique Cylindrical
   Equal Area. #166.

o Corrected a coefficient error in inverse Transverse Mercator. #174.

o Respect -r flag when calling proj with -V. #184.

o Remove multiplication by 2 at the equator error in Stereographic
   projection. #194.

o Allow +alpha=0 and +gamma=0 when using Oblique Mercator. #195.

o Return correct result of inverse Oblique Mercator when alpha is
   between 90 and 270. #331.

o Avoid segmentation fault when accessing point outside grid. #369.

o Avoid segmentation fault on NaN input in Robin inverse. #463.

o Very verbose use of proj (-V) on Windows is fixed. #484.

o Fixed memory leak in General Oblique Transformation. #497.

o Equations for meridian convergence and partial derivatives have
   been corrected for non-conformal projections. #526.

o Fixed scaling of cartesian coordiantes in pj_transform(). #726.

o Additional bug fixes courtesy of Googles OSS-Fuzz program:
   https://bugs.chromium.org/p/oss-fuzz/issues/list?can=1&q=proj4


DEPRECATIONS
------------

o The projects.h header and the functions related to it is
   considered deprecated from version 5.0.0 and onwards.


    !!!     PROJECTS.H WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE LIBRARY     !!!
    !!!                 WITH VERSION 6.0.0                  !!!

o The nmake build system on Windows will not be supported from
   version 6.0.0 on onwards. Use CMake instead.

    !!! NMAKE BUILD SYSTEM WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE LIBRARY !!!
    !!!                 WITH VERSION 6.0.0                  !!!

o The proj_api.h header and the functions related to it is
   consided deprecated from version 5.0.0 and onwards.

    !!!     PROJ_API.H WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE LIBRARY     !!!
    !!!                 WITH VERSION 7.0.0                  !!!


THANKS TO
------------

Version 5.0.0 is made possible by the following contributors:

    Lukasz Komsta
    Maxim Churilin
    edechaux
    dusanjovic
    Zoltan Siki
    Tom Fili
    Nicolas David
    Mike Toews
    Micah Cochran
    Luke Campbell
    Ilya Oshchepkov
    Adam Wulkiewicz
    Jonas Tittmann
    Mateusz Loskot
    Etienne Jacques
    Bas Couwenberg
    Elliott Sales de Andrade
    Charles Karney
    Aaron Puchert
    Julien Moquet
    Charles Karney
    Howard Butler
    Even Rouault
    Thomas Knudsen
    Kristian Evers