One of the advantages of Open GIS is that it creates opportunities for
third parties to add value, e.g., with a nicer front end for the kind
of user who doesn't want to hear from awk.  If, as some comments have
suggested, official GRASS releases concentrate on core functionality,
that's not necessarily at odds with the genuine need for an easy
way into GRASS -- as it would be for a commercial package, where you
get whatever company X decides to shrinkwrap.  Is there less of a
conflict here than seems at first?

Neel Smith
nsmith@polar.bowdoin.edu

