[GRASS5] GRASS 5 and sockets: default?

[Eric G. Miller]

On Mon, Feb 19, 2001 at 04:15:06PM +0000, Markus Neteler wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> the sockets driver is maturing quickly. Question is if
> we should make it default for the forthcoming 5.0.0
> or not. 
> 
>  - we need a platform report about it's quality
>      o Linux: running well (better than fifos)
>      o SGI:
>      o Windows/Cygnus:
>      o FreeBSD:
>      o Solaris2.6/SUN: running well (better than fifos)
>      o Solaris8/SUN:
>      o Solaris/Intel:

Yes, I'd like to hear a few more reports first.  Does it work okay on
CygWin? and every other target platform?

>  - what's missing (hi Eric)
>         - locks directory moved to $HOME/.grass5/ (?)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the global lock directory was only used for
monitors under the fifo scheme?  The sockets code doesn't use/need any
such locks (drivers only handle one connection at a time -- all other
connections wait or are refused; users no longer share a limited
resource like fixed fifos).

However, I like the $HOME/.grass5/ directory for other reasons.  There's
already the G_home(), so it's only a little bit of work to set up
element handling (e.g. subdirs).  I want to make sure ~/.grass5 is chmod
4700 for a modicum of security.  Is there a reason we might want it
readable by processes not owned by the $USER?

>  - what's to be postponed to 5.1:
>         - scale in top line of monitor (?)

In theory, this doesn't seem real hard (you already have put together
some working code).  However, there's the problem where the server
process is never "informed" if a user changes region settings midstream.
So, somewhere there'd have to be a mechanism for requery/update of the
title bar.

>         - auto-redraw when resizing  (?)

This seems to be more difficult, when you consider frames in addition to
the window itself.  The current code just deletes everything from the
PAD list, clears the screen, and sets up a new pixmap buffer (if
necessary).  It would be nice to have, and seems like it should be
doable.  I think the resize code maybe needs to make a backup of the
PAD, and then try to recreate the commands after the resize.  I don't
know?

> I have the impression that the sockets driver is the last thing
> missing for 5.0.0 (stable) except the few release-critical bugs in BUGS.
> We won't be able to get G3D stable, so that will be postponed to
> GRASS 5.1 (and left out of 5.0.0).

I agree that the g3d stuff isn't really ready for prime time.  There's
little that you can do with the data right now anyway, so maybe we give
it a hard look in 5.1?

> What about the NVIZ troubles? I cannot reproduce Helena's problems.

I dunno.  Those compass marks make a big difference in understanding
what the controls are doing (thanks Bob).

-- 
Eric G. Miller <egm2 at jps.net>

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