[GRASS5] embedding GRASS display into my app

[Glynn Clements]

David Piasecki wrote:

> I guess I could use v.to.rast to convert any vector files to raster and 
> then r.out.png so I can load it in my application, but it seems like 
> the time it would take to do all that conversion and loading might be 
> too slow?

For an interactive application, it would probably be too slow, even if
the PNG driver was made to write uncompressed PNG files or PPM files
(for compressed PNG files, the bulk of the time would be spent on the
compression step).

The PNG driver approach would be more useful for something like d.m,
where you want to be able to redraw a fixed (unchanging) layer
quickly. If the layer is likely to change between redraws (i.e. an
interactive vector map editor), you would be better off rendering
directly to the screen each time.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn.clements at virgin.net>