[GRASS5] Grass monitor library

[Carl Worth]

Glynn Clements writes:
 > 
 > pcpa at conectiva.com.br wrote:
 > 
 > >   I am implementing a front end to grass, where I am creating my own monitors,
 > > so that I can layout better my application, can put function buttons around
 > > the monitor(s) screen(s), etc.

This is probably a good place for me to jump in as I may want to do
some similar things.

A little background: I'm a researcher at USC's Information Sciences
Institute. Some of our current projects involve setting up a network
of seismic sensors that can detect vehicles driving by. I'm tasked
with creating a handheld visualization/interaction platform that can
do the following:

	* Display maps of the current area.

	* Display current vehicle position obtained in realtime from
	  wireless GPS units in the vehicles.

	* Display sensor locations and status, including vehicle
          position/bearing estimates.

	* Calculate and display coverage predictions.

I've decided on the Compaq iPAQ, (206 MHz StrongArm 64MB RAM), running
Linux as my hardware platform, (along with wireless network and up to
1GB storage card).

I'm now investigating using GRASS for the basis for my software
implementation and I'm interested in suggestions/ideas from those who
have more experience with GRASS than I do, (I've only been fiddling
with it for about a week now).

I have already compiled GRASS for the iPAQ/Linux and it seems to be
running just fine. The only major thing I think I will have to do is
some GUI work to make things more stylus friendly, (large text-based
dialog boxes won't work too well in this environment). I'm thinking of
doing some Python work for this, (perhaps pygtk or wxWindows/GTK).

The other question/concern I have is how well GRASS will satisfy the
dynamic needs of my application. I'm thinking I'll use a database
interface to get my vehicle and sensor data into GRASS. I'd like to
have fairly regular updates of vehicle locations, (maybe 10 fps), as
well as enabling fairly rapid pan/zoom of the map. Do you think GRASS
is up the task?

Pardon my ignorance, as I am brand new to GRASS.

I'd be very interested in any comments or suggestions you have.

 > It's now in a state where, once GRASS 5.0 is released, we can throw
 > ...
 > Basically, src/display/devices and src/libes/raster need to go, with
 > src/libes/display (and a fair number of programs) being re-implemented
 > on top of better foundations.

Looks like maybe I can start looking into a new architecture for
overhauling this stuff. Or might my effort be better spent just
writing GUI interfaces around the existing monitors?

-Carl

PS. If we get much discussion I suppose we can move to the grassGUI
mailing list. I didn't start there as it appears pretty dead right
now.

-- 
Carl Worth                                        
USC Information Sciences Institute                 cworth at east.isi.edu
4350 N. Fairfax Dr. #770, Arlington VA 22203	          703-812-3725