I updated my copy of the graphics/gd package from 1.3p1 to 1.6.3 but
noticed several issues which stopped me from committing the update.

The problem is that old (including 1.3) versions of gd generate GIF files.
However due do concerns over the copyright issues around the compression
used in GIF, new (1.6.3) versions of gd do not support GIF's at all but do
PNG instead.  Here is the blurb from some of the gd documentation:

     _HEY! READ THIS!_ gd 1.6.3 creates PNG images, not GIF images. This
     is a good thing. PNG is a more compact format, and full compression
     is available. Existing code will need modification to call
     gdImagePng instead of gdImageGif. _Please do not ask us to send you
     the old GIF version of GD._ Unisys holds a patent on the LZW
     compression algorithm, which is used in fully compressed GIF
     images. We are still investigating the legal issues surrounding
     various alternative means of producing a valid GIF file.

so the problem is then that we have 4 other packages that depend on gd:

net/mrtg  -- could probably be updated to generate PNG's instead of GIF's

www/webalizer  -- specifically says to use gd-1.3, no newer, on its web
                 page

www/php3-gd  -- haven't looked into this one yet

graphics/fly -- can be easily updated to produce PNG's intead of GIF's,
                however depending on what other scripts people have
                written that use fly, they may need updating as well.


so, I see a couple options:

1)  move the existing gd-1.3p1 package to graphics/gd13, have it install
    its components with unique names, and point the other programs which 
    depend on gd to gd13.  Then make a new package graphics/gd which is
    the more up to date version.

    I'm not sure if there are any copyright issues for us if we continue
    to distribute gd-1.3 with its compressed GIF producing code.

2)  try and update the other packages and replace all GIF usage with PNG
    usage.  I'm not sure when I could get this done especially since I
    don't use the other packages that depend on gd.

3)  leave the existing stuff alone and make a graphics/gd-png package
    which goes forward with new releases of gd.  There is still the issue
    of making sure there are no name clashes with the old gd or make a
    CONFLICTS entry.

I'm not crazy about any of these.

Comments?

-Dan