[Qgis-developer] some questions about GRASS features in QGIS

[William Kyngesburye]

I'm thinking about a packaging idea for bundling GRASS in the OS X app and need to know the extent of GRASS capabilities in the QGIS plugin. (I don't use GRASS in QGIS except to load GRASS layers, and that very rarely)  I'm trying to figure out if there is anything I can trim out of the bundled GRASS.

- Can the plugin access/start the GRASS GUI?  I mean just the full GUI started with g.gui.  Is there really any benefit to doing this in QGIS?

- Can the plugin use the command mini-GUI things (whatever they're called), that start when you run a GRASS command without parameters?  Seems redundant if it can, since the plugin has it's own GUI forms for filling in command parameters.

- Then there are a couple tools that only run in a small GUI interface, like NVIZ (in its multiple forms).  How does the plugin handle these?  Not at all, or let them run as is?

- Does the plugin initialize the GRASS environment completely on its own, or does it use any of the GRASS startup/init shell scripts?

- can the plugin run arbitrary GRASS scripts or modules (ie user scripts and addon modules)?

-----
William Kyngesburye <kyngchaos*at*kyngchaos*dot*com>
http://www.kyngchaos.com/

"Those people who most want to rule people are, ipso-facto, those least suited to do it."

- A rule of the universe, from the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy