[GRASS5] Some questions about joining GRASS development

[Moritz Lennert]

On Thu, December 16, 2004 10:43, Radim Blazek said:
> 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.

This requires cygwin, or ?

> 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.

I don't think the real problem is the linking issue (polluting the GPL), but
it is QGIS itself. What happens if the developer who has a commercial license
now, goes away ? No one can compile QGIS on MS Windows unless they have a
commercial license or they use cygwin...

Moritz


>
> 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
>> www: <www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton>
>
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