[GRASS5] Some questions about joining GRASS development

[Michael Barton]

On 12/13/04 2:02 AM, "Radim Blazek" <blazek at itc.it> wrote:

> Benjamin Ducke wrote:
>> Hi there,
>> Here are some questions I need answered to make some more progress:
>> 
>> 1. GUI:
>> 
>> If so, how does all the GRASS functionality contained in current GIS
>> Manager fit into qGIS? What about the Tk runtime forms (I thought they were
>> quite nice)?
> 
> I want to work on QGIS again after GRASS 6.0.0 release. I would like to
> add some sort of easy to use GUI for GRASS modules, probably a
> combination  of description generated by module and predefined options
> for each task. Suggestions are welcome.
> 

Benjamin,

QGIS is nice looking and growing in functionality. There are versions for
both Windows and Mac that do not require X-Windows, but use native graphic
display drivers (e.g., Aqua for Mac). But qGIS is still in a comparatively
early state of development (version 0.5 is out and 0.6 is being developed).
Also, as Radim implies, there would need to be thoughtful revision of the
interface to accommodate all of GRASS functionality. Looking at the QGIS
website, it seems also that there are license issues QT for Windows. It is
not free software for Windows as it is for Mac and Linux. Currently, one
qGIS developer has a commercial QT license for Windows and is making Windows
binaries freely available under the terms of his commercial license.
Although this is highly laudable, it seems problematic in the long run. This
makes me worry a bit about QT as a platform for GRASS. Although I'm a Mac
person, there are a lot of Windows users out there. Recent changes in ESRI
licensing for Arc 9 may make GRASS even more attractive for Windows
users--if they have a useable version that is reasonably easy to install.

The tcltk interface has continued to evolve a lot over the past 9 months. It
is much better than it was a year ago. Tcltk is also free software and
available for all platforms on which GRASS runs. However, tcltk has its own
issues. It seems a bit quirky from a programming standpoints--sometimes not
interacting well with the C modules. Also, as it is now implemented, it
requries X-windows but some tcltk versions don't work with GRASS. This means
that the native Mac tcltk doesn't work without some tweaking. Windows
requires Cygwin and its Xwindows server, but GRASS doesn't work with Cygwin
tcltk. Tcltk 8.4 on Debian (I think) won't work and you have to have 8.3
installed too (or instead). I don't know if or whether these could be fixed
or whether version of Tcltk operate outside of an X-Windows environment if
that is desirable.

We definitely need to continue to develop and improve the GUI. Making it
more 'intelligent' from the user  standpoint would be a big help form
something as complex as GRASS. JMP statistics package has a very interesting
approach to this kind of complexity that might be worth considering. I had
thought that QT might be a very good platform to build this in. However, the
problems with availability for Windows leaves me a little more hesitant
about this. I'm not cognizant of alternatives, however. Perhaps Radim could
speak to this more as he has been actively participating in the qGIS project
and did a lot with the Tcltk GUI.

Michael

____________________
C. Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
PO Box 872402
Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ  85287-2402
USA

Phone: 480-965-6262
Fax: 480-965-7671
www: <www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton>