Each time we finish a GRASS GIS lab session (3-4 hours), i run the
script of the whole lab in 1-2 minutes in front of the students, you
should see their reaction!<br><br>Such "assisted" scripting capability
would be a serious advantage for fastening the learning curve to
advanced level processing. Aggreed, not all processing can be done
scripting-side, but surely a lot can be done. Besides, GRASS GIS is
changing fast, having a way to list & pick-up commands can really
help out here.
<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">2006/6/9, Glynn Clements <<a href="mailto:glynn@gclements.plus.com">glynn@gclements.plus.com</a>>:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>David Finlayson wrote:<br><br>> In my opinion, one of the problems with a GUI is that you have to<br>> learn GRASS twice to use it in scripts. Once, you learn the buttons<br>> for getting things done. Twice, you learn the commands to do the same
<br>> thing. That makes scripting a high barrier to cross and a lot of<br>> people never learn how to automate there work. In CLI, you only learn<br>> the program once, you use the same command for interactive and
<br>> scripting use. Just like the big math programming languages. This must<br>> work because all of the big math programs use this approach (Matlab,<br>> Maple, Mathematica, R, S-plus, etc.) and many of these are popular
<br>> with their users.<br>><br>> BUT, the main problem with the CLI is discoverability. You can't use<br>> it if you don't know the commands and weak CLI do not assist in the<br>> tedious usage parts. And there are some things that are just easier
<br>> when interactive, like laying out a figure. So, a nice IDE can really<br>> make using the program easier by providing helper tools that make the<br>> CLI friendlier and more discoverable.<br><br>For GRASS, the main problem with a command line is that specifying
<br>points by typing in coordinates is a lot less convenient than using a<br>mouse.<br><br>Modules such as v.digit and i.points /need/ a GUI.<br><br>Beyond that, the visualisation aspects of gis.m should ultimately be<br>
able to be controlled from the command line. I.e. being able to type a<br>command to add, move, modify, hide (etc) layers, rather than having to<br>use buttons or menus.<br><br>Even from a command-line perspective, the existing display
<br>architecture is deficient in that you can't modify the layer stack<br>other than adding a new layer on the top or clearing the stack<br>altogether.<br><br>--<br>Glynn Clements <<a href="mailto:glynn@gclements.plus.com">
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