VipsScaler

Rationale
The goal of this project is to replace ImageMagick with VipsScaler on the Wikimedia cluster. This will reduce memory consumption when converting images, since the Vips utility allows for streaming input, whereas ImageMagick must load complete files into memory. Having a more efficient scaler will make it possible to lift some file size limits imposed on the Wikimedia cluster, and generally improve performance.

Timeline
A strict timeline is not defined for this project, as it may be put on the backburner to deal with other priorities. Here's an ordered list of tasks we plan to accomplish:
 * Deployment of comparison tool to test2 (done - 2011-11-30)
 * Deployment of image scaler for large files to commons
 * Deployment of comparison tool to commons
 * Complete replacement of ImageMagick with VipsScaler

Documents

 * User requirements:
 * Specifications:
 * Software design document:
 * Test plan:
 * Documentation plan:
 * User interface design docs:
 * Schedule:
 * Task management:
 * Release management plan:
 * Communications plan:
 * Status updates