Ian Turton wrote:
I think you're really looking for a smart client to be able to do that for you.Perhaps slightly off-topic, but isn't that just what we are all looking for? MapServer really is a great Open Source product (I don't find it bloated at all, did you ever look at ArcInfo?), but its main strength, like so many OS programs, lies in server side processing. I haven't worked as much with GeoTools as with MapServer, but every time I see it I think, Gee, I would like to use this client interface with MapServer. I think Steve Lime meant something like that too in his reaction. If you are working on server side processing in GeoTools 2, why not add some kind of bridge to MapServer? The CGI interface is essentially quite simple, so adding functionality for it alongside your Java server-processing shouldn't be too much of a problem. Both products working together would certainly be a more powerful combination than the sum of the two of them in isolation.
Maybe this is just because I'm a sad old unix hacker ....