[GRASS5] Re: [Fwd: whinging about GRASS again]

[Russell Nelson]

Mark P. Line writes:
 > Russell Nelson said:
 > > Because that's what Fedora has packaged.  When somebody says "GRASS is
 > > the open source GIS program", and they install the GRASS package,
 > > that's what they'll get.
 > 
 > Sorry, there's no such thing as "the GRASS package".

[nelson at desk nelson]$ rpm -q grass
grass-5.7.0-1.fdr.2
[nelson at desk nelson]$ 

 > > Here's one way the learning curve could be flattened:
 > >
 > > First, don't ask for a location.  Use $HOME/.grass.
 > 
 > What do you call it on Windows and Mac systems?

I dunno.  I expect that there is a reasonable default on both
systems.  "My Documents\GRASS" for Windows perhaps?

 > How do you share locations among several users?

That's not likely to be the first thing you do.  If it is, then the
person who is sharing the data with you will be able to tell you how
to access it.

 > Renaming of symbols upon which downstream client software depends is a
 > backward compatibility issue.

How many other programs besides the ones shipped with GRASS understand
GRASS's file hierarchy?  I acknowledge the general case of the problem
you describe.

 > Why does GRASS require more users?

Everyone agrees that GRASS has a steep learning curve of its own,
independent on the GIS learning curve.  Consequently, there must be
many people who would like to do GIS analysis using GRASS, but have
not gotten past the learning curve.

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