[GRASS5] Grass 5 new releases

[Michael Barton]

I read through the discussion yesterday of which version(s) of GRASS 5 
should be released next. Given Helena's comments I decided to be bold 
(for me) and try to compile GRASS 5.3 from the current CVS snapshot. 
I'm running  Mac OSX 10.2.8.

After puzzling over what turned out to be a syntax problem in my 
configuration parameters, I succeeded.

I've run through a variety of trials using the Spearfish sample data 
and everything seems to be working fine.

If it would help speed up the release to make it easier for more people 
to test 5.3, I am happy to make the OSX binaries available for 
distribution. I can explain how I configured the compilation, and could 
recompile it if something I did could cause problems for others. I'd 
probably need a bit of help in how to package up the binaries properly 
for distribution. Also, I haven't the foggiest idea of how to make the 
shell script that always seems to accompany binary distributions 
(though it basically seems to be an ungzip+untar command accompanied by 
a variety of measures to check if a system has the proper 
resources/directories to install and run grass). However, if its simply 
a matter of editing the 5.0.2 script a bit, I do it with guidance.

IMHO: As an aside and in response to the concern over the GRASS user 
base and attracting programmers to the team, there may be considerable 
'pent-up-demand' for GRASS on Mac OSX platforms. After making GIS 
packages available for Mac users in the 1990's, both ESRI and MapInfo 
abandoned the Mac platform several years later. GRASS has a golden 
opportunity to expand its user base here. I am certainly encouraging 
this with the Mac users I interact with. Apple lists GRASS on its OSX 
web site. However, while learning GRASS is no harder (or easier) than 
ArcView or MapInfo, installing it is by a long shot. While I think Macs 
have a considerably larger installed base than any other particular 
Unix flavor, most Mac users are not Unix savvy. Installing from the 
terminal via a shell script is an adventure fraught with trepidation 
for most of them; compiling from source would not even be imagined by 
most. (The same is true of most MS Windows users of course.) Ideally, 
GRASS binaries for OSX should be released in package format (I probably 
have the tools to do this, but have not yet used them if I do) like the 
version that Open OSX has produced, and the versions of PostgreSQL and 
MySQL by Marc Liyanage. X11 should probably accompany it as an option, 
though it this will be less necessary in the future as Apple now 
packages X11 with its OS. Just some thoughts...

Un saludo cordial
Michael Barton
____________________
C. Michael Barton, Professor
Department of Anthropology
PO Box 872402
Arizona State University
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Phone: 480-965-6262
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