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<DIV><FONT size=4>Congratulations Grass Development Team, and many
thanks.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Colin.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=neteler@osgeo.org
href="mailto:neteler@osgeo.org">Markus Neteler</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, July 30, 2013 5:32 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=grass-announce@lists.osgeo.org
href="mailto:grass-announce@lists.osgeo.org">GRASS-announce list</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Cc:</B> <A title=grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
href="mailto:grass-user@lists.osgeo.org">GRASS user list</A> ; <A
title=discuss@lists.osgeo.org
href="mailto:discuss@lists.osgeo.org">OSGeo-discuss</A> ; <A
title=freegis-list@intevation.de
href="mailto:freegis-list@intevation.de">freegis-list@intevation.de</A> ; <A
title=grass-dev@lists.osgeo.org href="mailto:grass-dev@lists.osgeo.org">GRASS
developers list</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [GRASS-user] Celebrating 30 years of GRASS
GIS!</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<P><EM>Press release</EM><BR><EM>29 July 2013</EM></P>
<H2>Today marks 30 years of GRASS GIS development</H2>
<P>Today the Free Software community celebrates the <STRONG>30th birthday of
GRASS GIS</STRONG>! GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is a
<STRONG>free and open source</STRONG> Geographic Information System (GIS)
software suite used for geospatial data management and analysis, image
processing, graphics and map production, spatial modeling, and 3D visualization.
GRASS GIS is currently used in academic and commercial settings around the
world, as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting
companies. GRASS GIS can be used either as a <STRONG>stand-alone
application</STRONG> or as <STRONG>backend</STRONG> for other software packages
such as QGIS and R geostatistics. It is a founding member of the Open Source
Geospatial Foundation (<A href="http://www.osgeo.org/">OSGeo</A>) and can be
freely downloaded at <A
href="http://grass.osgeo.org/download/software/">http://grass.osgeo.org/download/software/</A>.</P>
<P><IMG title="30 YEARS OF GRASS GIS!"
style="MARGIN-LEFT: auto; DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-RIGHT: auto"
alt="30 YEARS OF GRASS GIS!"
src="http://grass.osgeo.org/uploads/images/30-years-grass-gis-logo-black-300px.png"
width=144 height=138></P>
<H3>Brief history</H3>
<P>In 1982, Lloyd Van Warren, a University of Illinois engineering student,
began development on a new computer program based on a master's thesis by Jim
Westervelt that described a GIS package called LAGRID – the Landscape
Architecture Gridcell analysis system. Thirty years ago, on 29 July 1983, the
user manual for this new system titled "<EM>GIS Version 1 Reference Manual</EM>"
was first published by J. Westervelt and M. O'Shea. The software continued its
development at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering
Research Laboratory (USA/CERL) in Champaign, Illinois; and after further
expansion version 1.0 was released in 1985 under the name <STRONG>Geographic
Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS)</STRONG>. The GRASS GIS community was
established the same year with the first annual user meeting and the launch of
GRASSnet, one of the internet's early mailing lists. The user community expanded
to a larger audience in 1991 with the "Grasshopper" mailing list and the
introduction of the World Wide Web. The users' and programmers' mailing lists
archives for these early years are still available <A
href="http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/grass-user/">online</A>.<BR>In the mid
1990s the development transferred from USA/CERL to The Open GRASS Consortium (a
group who would later generalize to become today's Open Geospatial Consortium --
the <A href="http://www.opengeospatial.org/">OGC</A>). The project coordination
eventually shifted to the actual <STRONG>international development team</STRONG>
made up of governmental and academic researchers and university scientists.
Reflecting this shift to a project run by the users, for the users, in 1999
GRASS GIS was released the first time under the terms of the GNU General Public
License (GPL). A detailed history of GRASS GIS can be found at <A
href="http://grass.osgeo.org/history/">http://grass.osgeo.org/history/</A>.</P>
<P>Since these early days GRASS development has progressed and grown, adjusting
with and often at the forefront of new technologies as they became available.
Today GRASS's software development is maintained by a team of domain experts as
visualized in this beautiful new <A href="http://youtu.be/MR4_5GSID2A">video
animation</A> which stylistically details the codebase evolution and
modifications from <STRONG>1999 through to 2013</STRONG>, up to and including
the latest GRASS GIS 6.4.3 stable release.</P>
<H3>30 years of active growth: where are we now?</H3>
<P>Recent versions of GRASS GIS come with exciting new features like:</P>
<UL>
<LI>A <STRONG><A href="http://grass.osgeo.org/screenshots/user-interface/">new
modern graphical user interface</A></STRONG> complete with integrated
workflow-wizards and interactive tools,
<LI>A <STRONG><A href="http://grasswiki.osgeo.org/wiki/GRASS_and_Python">new
Python interface</A></STRONG> to the core C geoprocessing libraries,
permitting Python developers to create powerful new modules in a quick and
simple way,
<LI>Fully-fledged <A
href="http://grass.osgeo.org/grass64/manuals/vectorintro.html"><STRONG>topological
vector support</STRONG></A> for editing and tools for topological analysis and
data cleaning,
<LI>Hundreds of <STRONG>new modules</STRONG> to analyze raster and vector data
of all scales and types, with hundreds more contributed in an active community
repository,
<LI>Support for <STRONG>massive data processing</STRONG> (e.g. relevant for
LiDAR processing) and Large File Support (> 2GB, 64-bit files on 32-bit
systems),
<LI>A codebase <STRONG>portable</STRONG> to all of today's major Operating
Systems,
<LI>Installed on everything from low-power dataloggers and field laptops to
high performance Grid Engines and TOP500 supercomputers. </LI></UL>
<P>GRASS GIS is currently developed by a global team of around twenty core
programmers, plus numerous add-on contributors, testers, and translators.
Overall, more than seventy core developers have worked on the code in the past
thirty years, making over fifty-thousand modifications to the code. All the
while, hundreds more have provided peer review and improvements to algorithms
and documentation while using GRASS GIS in professional, educational, and
research contexts.</P>
<H3>Where to next?</H3>
<P>Development on GRASS GIS continues with as much energy and interest as ever.
<A
href="http://grass.osgeo.org/news/28/15/Stable-GRASS-GIS-6-4-3-released/"><STRONG>Version
6.4.3 has been released as a birthday present</STRONG></A>. Parallel to the
<STRONG>long-term maintenance</STRONG> of the GRASS 6 stable series, effort is
well underway on the new cutting-edge major release, <A
href="http://trac.osgeo.org/grass/wiki/Grass7/NewFeatures"><STRONG>GRASS GIS
7</STRONG></A>, bringing with it many new features, modules, enhancements, and
cleanups. As in the past, the GRASS GIS community is open to any contribution,
be it in the form of programming, documentation, testing, financial sponsorship
or any other form of support.</P>
<P>--<BR><A
href="http://grass.osgeo.org/"><EM>http://grass.osgeo.org/<BR></EM></A><EM>M.
Neteler (GRASS GIS PSC Chair) and GRASS Development Team</EM></P></DIV>
<P>
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