[GRASS5] Some questions about joining GRASS development

[Radim Blazek]

For QGIS+GRASS on Win there are 2 options:
1) GPL X11 version of QT 3 was ported to win32:
      http://kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net/qt3-win32/screenshots.php
      http://kde-cygwin.sourceforge.net/qt3-win32/qt3-win32/roadmap.php
    It seems that the QPrinter is the only missing class which is
    important for QGIS.
2) Do not link with GRASS library. Data can be read via GDAL.
    GUI for modules does not need to be linked with the GRASS library.
    The only problem is digitizing.

Note that GRASS currently does not run on windows without Cygwin, I am 
sure that QPrinter will be ready before a GRASS port to windows.

Radim


Michael Barton wrote:
> 
> 
> 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
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