[GRASS-dev] call for volunteers - urgent need for Windows Vista binaries

[Michael Barton]

Whether you like it or not, it is nearly impossible to get a new PC  
without Windows Vista today. If we want GRASS to be accessible to  
Windows users, we need to have versions that run under Vista.

Over the past year, the development team have worked to solve many  
issues that kept GRASS from running under Vista in the past. The only  
problem now is that there are no Windows Vista binaries for users.  
Furthermore, there is no current stand-alone Windows binary for GRASS  
at all.

Marco Pasetti made a very nice Windows installer for 6.3 last year,  
but is unable to continue this work.

Other folks in OSGEO have created OSGEO4W with a number of packages.  
However, GRASS is in the 'advanced' section--and it is not clear what  
libraries need to be downloaded with it--and it cannot be installed  
stand-alone.

Also, as far as I can tell, the OSGEO4W binary is compiled with  
Windows XP. It opens in Vista but various modules insidiously fail  
(e.g. r.patch, v.patch, v.what.rast, and others). Anyone who installs  
GRASS under Windows Vista will perceive it as a very buggy and semi- 
functional program.

So if we are serious about making GRASS as cross-platform as we claim,  
we need some windows knowledgeable volunteers who can 1) help the  
OSGEO4W team create a Vista version and 2) produce binary versions of  
GRASS for XP and Vista to go along with the current Linux and Mac  
versions. The current GRASS dev team has done a fantastic job over the  
past 2 years of making GRASS compilable under Windows, but are working  
hard on maintaining and developing the module and interface code.

So we really need some new volunteers to tackle maintaining Windows  
binaries. Is there anyone able to take this on?

Michael