TCL/TK and GRASS

[Peter Mikes]

 | Mark P. Line   of Open Pathways wrote :

 |  Most importantly, I think we need to ascertain what kinds of GUI
 |  styles/paradigms are in greatest demand. Personally, I favor the
 |  drag-and-drop/popup-menu object-oriented style, which would lend itself to
 |  a lot of GRASS. Others might favor a more sttraightforward orientation
 around the GRASS command-line interface. Then there is the functional
 |  dataflow style as found in Khoros and AVS, which would be the most elegant
 |  means of encapsulating the current philosophy of GRASS in a GUI, perhaps,
 |  but also the most work to develop.

   I would like to second this - both the need to dicuss what style,
          and the motion to consider Khoros.
 I am new to Grass but I have used Khoros to build GUI for other (non) Khoros
  modules and it seems that to me so far that Khoros and Grass would be a natural marriage.

 Unlike AVS, Khoros  is free and source is available and it was even ported to Linux.

 Khoros looks formidable (to the deloper, not to the  user) on the first glance, and there
 certainly is a learning curve there, but it is not realy that hard to use it as GUI tool.

      ( Basically, any module which has proper CLUI, a CLUI conforming to Khoros standard,
  can be plugged into Cantata in matter of ninutes; CLUI is Khoros jargon for Command Line
  User Interface (i.e. command line arguments) and Cantata is Khoros's X-application with
  pull down menus and canavas. Once the module is 'plugged in',  it can be called by means
  of menu and different modules can be inter-connected... )

  Two issues merit consideration:
 1) Khoros2 is supposed to be released this August ( beta version is available now
            to memebers of consortium). Questiom is: If we choose Khoros - should we wait for 2?
  2) While whole of Khoros is more complex then Tcl/Tk, it also offers more, things
     such as interoperability across platform and co-authorong tools (such as Concert),
     and demo-(click capture) capabilities, which may be very useful.
     BTW: Khoros 1  has rudimentary GIS, which I heard is enhanced  in version 2; may be not only
     Grass needs Khoros but also: Khoross needs Grass. Good marriages should work like this.

     pom = Peter mikes =     e-mail   pom at llnl.gov  phone    510-423-9781  Livermore  CA 94550