[Proj] Compiling Proj 5.2.0

[Howard Butler]

> On Sep 17, 2018, at 1:25 PM, Greg Troxel <gdt at lexort.com> wrote:
> 
> It's very surprising that a library that has required only c99 for many
> years suddenly requires not just c++ but c++11.   That's not a problem
> in many places, but I suspect is an issue for some enviroments.   So if
> it's possible to avoid this (different test library?), that would be
> nice.

Greg,

It's time to move forward. New fangled C++11 is already 7+ years old :)

There have been some very vocal mailing list members who have complained vociferously about the people doing the development of PROJ not doing the things that they want. C99 compatibility in perpetuity has an opportunity cost. Those who wish to preserve C99 compatibility for PROJ for all of Even's WKT efforts did not step forward to take the work on. Those who can only use C99 can continue to use the older versions of the software. If we need to open some maintenance branches to preserve their continued patches and improvements of those branches, they can start making pull requests against the relevant release tags.

WKT going into PROJ (and its C++11 requirement) is a recognition of PROJ's role in a constellation of software. The inability to speak definitions of coordinate systems in the language that the rest of the industry can consume hurts interoperability of PROJ and all of the software pieces that depend upon it. Through the gdalbarn.com <http://gdalbarn.com/> effort, Even is leading a significant reinvestment in the infrastructure of these software tools and their relationships to each other. This effort has a incremental roadmap that isn't too disruptive to PROJ.

The different test library makes it more efficient to write tests more easily. A refactor of all of the tests to a different framework is a big lift for little gain. Again, someone must step forward to take on the development of these nice-to-haves.

Howard
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