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I would like to add my 2 cents worth, to the good advice that Bernhard
and Markus have already provided.
<p>Since your course is starting out in September, you have a little time
to prepare - but the months can go quite quickly.
<p>I assume that since you are planning to teach a course using Linux that
you have some background in UNIX. You mentioned that you are new
to Linux, but since Linux follows UNIX conventions so you should be able
to pick this up very easily. If you don't have a strong UNIX background,
then make sure that you choose one of the Linux distributions that is geared
to the newcomers. There are a number of these, and most have good
documentation, so familiarize yourself with the core Linux environment.
There are a number of packages that offer a lot of extras, but when you
are starting out these will probably be a cause of information overload.
The more popular Linux distributions offer choices for installing a few
"standard" installations, plus the customized installations. Make
sure that you select an installation that supports X Window applications
and networking. If you plan to teach programming GRASS or wish to
compile GRASS to your own configuration, then you will also need the development
environments. The Linux setup programs make this very easy to configure.
A lot of books are available now for setting up, using and programming
Linux, so the level of depth of knowledge that you wish to acquire is just
a function of how much time you have available.
<p>GRASS is very much a developing software. I have been using GRASS
for a while - but only as a personal interest, not in a professional capacity
so I am quick to try out the latest version. I would strongly recommend
that you use version 5, even though it is still in beta versions.
There have been several major enhancements in version 5, and most of the
later beta releases have had significant improvement in stability.
(Check out the long list of fixes in "GRASS 5 news" - just go to the link
under the Software heading on the main GRASS page). I have had much
more success with version 5 than previous versions and the development
team is working toward a stable release for V5.1. Either beta8 or
beta10 will provide a good starting point for learning GRASS. I would
recommend downloading the binary version and using that until you are familiar
with the layout of GRASS. Then, if you are more adventurous, you
can download the source code and compile it yourself. Please note
that a few people have had some trouble with the make process (compiling),
so you should be familiar with UNIX software development if you want to
try this. Most of the problems should be sorted out fairly soon,
judging from the effort that the development team is expending on the configure,
make and install processes. While they are sorting these issues out,
you can easily work with a precompiled version. Just check back from
time to time, to see what the latest release is, since there may be a few
between now and September - when you see that there is a new beta version
(or when they finally issue that minor version number [5.1] ) then you
can read the development news to see what has been changed. Then
you can decide whether or not you should upgrade.
<p>As someone who has used GRASS off and on for years (6 or 7?), I am always
interested in looking over the new tutorials and revised documentation.
The online tutorials listed under "Online Courses" at:
<br> <a href="http://www.baylor.edu/~grass/gdp/index.html">http://www.baylor.edu/~grass/gdp/index.html</a>
<br>are excellent places to get an introduction (or in my case a good review
- as I recently did - and I picked up a few things that I missed the first
time around). The tutorials listed under "Tutorials" (what else)
are mostly older, but after you are somewhat familiar with the system from
the online courses they should be worthwhile reading. Most of the
material is still relevant - the biggest challenge is probably going to
be the fact that the sample data sets don't match the write-up. For
that reason alone, the Project ASSIST tutorial is good for starting out
- they also provide sample data to use in the tutorial. For most
of the other tutorials you can follow along, but you won't have the same
data to use. In just reading over the tutorials and trying a few
things out I was able to pick up a number of new ideas. I think if
you start out with the project ASSIST tutorial and then go through the
other's you will be able to pick it up without much trouble.
<p>If you want to learn about basic introductory GRASS programming, there
is a link (to a link) to an incomplete course on GIS programming, using
GRASS, on the bottom of the
<br> <a href="http://intevation.de/freegis/freegis.en.html">FreeGIS</a>
<br>page, which has some very basic information. After that there
is the (hundreds of pages of the) grass programmer's manual.
<p>The link <a href="http://www.baylor.edu/~grass/firsttime.html">Welcome
First Time Users!</a> (from the main GRASS page) lays out a lot of
good information for getting started.
<p>If you have any questions you should probably go to the main GRASS Mailing
List rather than the developer's list. If you want to follow up on
any of the above, you can contact me directly and I will try to help.
<p>You might want to contact the people who developed the online courses
for their suggestions, as well.
<br>
<p>Good luck,
<p>Malcolm
<br>
<p>Bernhard Reiter wrote:
<br>
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>
<pre>On Mon, Jan 15, 2001 at 06:16:12PM +0000, Dr.Michael Francis wrote:
> I am a relative newcomer to both GRASS and Linux. However, the little I=
=20
> have seen of both Linux and GRASS has interested me a great deal.=20
Welcome to the world of free GIS. :)
> In September 2001, we shall be starting a new Bsc course in GIS
> and I plan to use GRASS 5. This will be the first time a) Linux is
> being used in the Gulf countries, and b) GRASS is being used in
> the same region. I am based at a University in Dubai in the United
> Arab Emirates. So, although this may be the wrong list for me to
> send this email but, you seem to be the knowledgable people regarding GRA=
SS.=20
Yes, this is the GRASS development list with a lot of knowledge
accumulated.
> OK - my question is really a simple one.=20
> Now that I have decided to go ahead and design the course based on=20
> Linux/GRASS, I need to know what version I should use, and how to go=20
> about it. Are there any books around? Literature? Papers? Anything?? I=20
> would bge grateful for any advice.
Markus already answered the question about the online courses and
papers in a different mail. (Did you already get it?)
I try to elaborate on the version to use.
This decision will largely depend on the computer skills you have at hand.
Going for GRASS version 5 is probably the right thing.
This version has beta quality but can be considered more stable and
complete than the GRASS 4 versions overall.
If you do not want to mess with getting CVS versions yourself and
fixing bugs you can get the rpm from the freegis-cd at:
<A HREF="ftp://freegis.org/freegis/gnu-linux-i586/freegis-1.0.4/i586/">ftp://freegis.org/freegis/gnu-linux-i586/freegis-1.0.4/i586/</A>
GRASS-5.0beta8-2.i586.rpm
This includes (GRASS5beta8) but does not have the latest bug-fixes and no n=
viz.
But it is easy to install and hand out to your students at home.
It might be enough.
If you know a bit about Linux and how to compile programs under
Linux, you can get the beta10 or CVS version and fix them up to have
the stuff running stable you need. Beta10 and current CVS contain
more bugfixes and a nicer interface, but you will definatly need
some unix knowledge and track the version numbers more closely.
We all hope that we get a stable beta11 release soon, but as always
with free software: Do not hold you breath for it. ;->
Regards,
Bernhard</pre>
</blockquote>
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