[GRASSLIST:10058] GIS Manager 2 release candidate 1

[Michael Barton]

I just committed to the cvs and uploaded to my web site
<http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton/files/grass_gismgr/gism_rc1_20060130.tg
z > a new version of the GRASS GIS Manager. Hopefully, with sufficient
testing and any needed bug fixes, we can move toward making this the current
default GUI for GRASS 6.

This builds on the prototype I released last week, fixing all reported (and
some unreported) bugs and adding some of the new user-related features I
previously mentioned. A few notable items are:

-printing to postscript devices (along with pdf and eps file output) is now
supported with ghostscript‹though I am hoping someone with more ghostscript
expertise can test and tweak this as needed.

-Each map display window now sports a progress bar that indicates the map
drawing process.

-Separate layer trees can be saved as resource files (*.dmrc) for each map
display created.

-x11 windows automatically launch for modules that require them.

-Several bugs with switching among displays, resizing, and querying have
been fixed. 

-There have been quite a few other changes Œunder the hood¹ to increase
stability and improve functionality.

In order to do vector querying, you¹ll need the new v.what module created by
Trevor Wiens. This should be uploaded to the CVS soon, but is currently
available in the package on my web site as source code and a Mac OSX binary.

I¹ve tested this on Mac OSX WITHOUT  X11 and it works fine. Obviously, you
can¹t run the several modules that still require x11 in this mode (most
importantly, digitizing, georeferencing GCP placement, and NVIZ). But this
should run with the new Windows native version of GRASS, assuming a Windows
native version of TclTk is installed. The command console that is included
in the GIS Manager main window means that you can send commands to GRASS
without an active terminal...I think. I assume that the init.sh file would
need to be tweaked a bit, but it should work. I¹d be interested in hearing
from anyone who tries it‹and especially from anyone who succeeds. ;-)

I¹d also be happy to have other people begin to work on maintaining and
updating this GUI for GRASS. Areas with highest priority include:

A module to configure the GUI‹e.g., fonts, query style, layer order.
Better printing
Updated c-modules that do not require x11‹especially for digitizing,
georeferencing, and NVIZ
optimizing the PNG driver (I¹m not sure exactly what could be done here, but
maybe worth looking into)

My thanks again to Radim Blazek, who developed the display manager for GRASS
5 and 6 which formed the conceptual and some of the code basis for this GUI;
Glynn Clements who has helped with TclTk questions, Trevor Wiens and Lorenzo
Moretti who have helped me get working versions of v.what; and Crischan
Wygoda and Martin Wegmann who also have been important contributors to the
GUI redesign project.

My hope is that this will provide inspiration for more sophisticated UI for
a great spatial technology.

Michael
______________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
USA

voice: 480-965-6262; fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton

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