MapServer

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Developer(s)	Steve Lime originally, now a project of the OSGeo foundation
Initial release	1994 (1994)
Stable release	8.4.0[1]  / 15 January 2025; 44 days ago (15 January 2025)
Repository	github.com/MapServer/MapServer
Written in	C / C++
Platform	Cross-platform
Type	GIS software (compare)
License	X/MIT
Website	mapserver.org

MapServer is an open-source development environment for building spatially enabled internet applications, built in the C language, and is widely known as one of the fastest Web mapping engines available. It can run as a CGI program or via MapScript which supports several programming languages (using SWIG). MapServer can access hundreds of data formats, any raster or vector format supported by GDAL, and reprojections on-the-fly are handled by PROJ. MapServer was originally developed by Steve Lime, then working at the University of Minnesota — so, it was previously referred to as "UMN MapServer", to distinguish it from commercial "map servers"; today it is commonly referred to as just "MapServer", and is maintained by the MapServer Project Steering Committee (PSC). MapServer was originally developed with support from NASA, which needed a way to make its satellite imagery available to the public.^[2]